Old timers here will recall Master Wang-ka’s friend Bob in the saga of the Horror of Toobs.
I’ve just learned that Bob got off lightly, because if he’d been toobing in GA instead of TX, he might have encountered a Suwanee Alligator Snapping Turtle, and I think this picture is going to give me nightmares. That thing is 100 pounds.
Snapping turtle mentions always remind me of my one-day “honeymoon” at Lake McBride.
Abandon that thought immediately. 
What happened was, we were driving on a nearby two-lane road, and stopped because there was a good-sized turtle blocking our lane. Being a nature Samaritan, I got out and lifted the turtle to carry him to safety, not expecting he would squirm out of my hands as I got him near the road’s edge, plopping onto his head. This evidently pissed him off, for when I reached for him again to get him completely out of the road, he lunged viciously at me, at which point I realized he was a snapper. You’re on your own now, bub.
I was involved in a much less traumatic rescue earlier today, when I saw Pluto the field spaniel was charging and pawing at something on the ground, and realized to my horror that it was a half-grown, flightless baby bird. Luckily I was able to get Pluto to drop the bird and carried it to safety. This contrasts with another recent episode in which I tried to persuade a large snake to exit our garage, which did not end well (for the snake).
Too many dang critters out here that can’t keep out of trouble.
Holy crap. That’s scary.
We have snapping turtles in our pond. I’ve seen them as big as turkey platter.
I’m told they can remove a finger.
That one could take a large leg of a linebacker.
Alligator snappers can weight 200-300 pounds. They live for a long long time, too long to absolutely determine currently, but some years back I read an article about one of these monsters found with Civil War era bullets deeply embedded in it’s shell.
TriPolar:
“Alligator snappers can weight 200-300 pounds. They live for a long long time, too long to absolutely determine currently, but some years back I read an article about one of these monsters found with Civil War era bullets deeply embedded in it’s shell.”
Neat story, though I couldn’t find a primary source for it. Here’s a related link (I like that the zoologist featured in the story is named Godwin).
I probably saw this in some publication related to Herpetology. I was keeping lizards and turtles at the time.
ETA: I ended up linking the same article you did so removed that.
S’truth; Alligator Snappers can weigh in mighty big; I’ve seen a few. The one on Bob’s butt, though, was no more than five pounds or so, and we STILL had holy hell getting it to let GO of him.