Snorkeling With a Snapping Turtle Covered in Leeches

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:01]Yo, that's a lot of leeches. Welcome  back to another snorkeling adventure. So, just a mini snorkeling adventure today,  but I was walking down this creek looking for fish and I saw a snapping turtle and  he's covered with leeches. So, I figured what's a better way to spend 20 minutes than  snorkeling with a snapping turtle? Got my gear, so I'm going to suit up, get in the creek,  and go find that turtle. Creek's kind of cold, so the wet suit is necessary, but I'm  just doing the top. Not the fun part.

[00:00:36]Alright, now I'm ready for the turtle. I mean, I am almost ready for the turtle. Kind of  a lot of work, but it's not every day you get to snorkel with a snapping turtle  - and leeches to boot, I guess. So... Here we go. You know what they say, dress  for the job you want, not the one you have.

[00:01:04]I couldn't find the turtle for a  second, but I found him, so we're good.

[00:01:16]Overall, the creek was pretty clear, but  it could have been better. A ton of recent rainfall had made me push up from the larger  rivers into smaller tributaries like this, looking for good snorkeling visibility. It  looks super dark here, which is actually a good thing because these creeks often  need lots of shade to maintain healthy temperatures throughout the year. As the  sand and silt that I had stirred up cleared, the turtle appeared - veiled in mud and  leaves as most cool things are, I guess.

[00:01:39]The snapping turtle had done an excellent job of  burying itself. I almost couldn't find it after I went to put on my wetsuit. I know a snapping  turtle isn't all that rare of a find. After all, common snapping turtles range pretty much all  over the US, even up into Canada. But I'm up in the mountains of South Carolina, and to me, it's  still pretty cool to see them in a mountain creek.

[00:02:00]But also, obviously, there on its neck was its  offset crown of leeches. There were a ton. You can try and count them if you want. They  were all writhing in an unsettling pile.

[00:02:11]I don't know my leech species very well,  but I think these are smooth turtle leeches, which makes sense given their location.  Apparently, in the Carolinas, there are over 20 species of freshwater leeches. There's also  one that can be found in brackish environments, one that lives in terrestrial environments, and  then also 6 marine species. The sight kind of made my stomach turn a bit. I'm not going  to lie, but then I wondered why. I mean, what beef do I have with leeches? This is a lot of  leeches, and it's easy to feel bad for a turtle, but turtles and leeches have coexisted  on this planet for a heck of a long time.

[00:02:41]And if a parasite is a weaker organism that  depends on the strength of a stronger one, I'm not sure why I have such an adverse reaction  to such a reasonable biological strategy.

[00:02:53]They say you never know what  people do in their houses. Well, you also never know what's going down in the  creek. Except this time, I do because I'm there.

[00:03:11]The turtle will be okay and should  live out his 50 to 100 years in the wild no problem. Snapping turtles  are pretty tanky, let me tell you.

[00:03:22]Eventually, the snapping turtle emerged  from the mud and ventured out into the middle of the creek. I'm going to shut up and  you can just watch it happen. It's pretty cool.

[00:04:27]The fact that it was a snapping turtle, the  green algae on its back, and the small army of leeches all reminded me of the lion turtle  from Avatar, or the world turtle from Eastern mythology - a mythical beast that carries entire  ecosystems on its back. While a world of low-key creepy leeches may not be my go-to, who am  I to judge the twisting, squirming community this turtle bears on its back, I get that  parasites are hard to appreciate. To be honest, I DO have legitimate beef with ticks. But I mean,  if all you want to see is a creepy pile of leeches on a turtle in a creek, that's what you'll  see. But I think if you look a little longer, there's still something profound to  be discovered. That confusing tension of forced sacrifice and clever adaptation, all  struggling together towards collective survival, But at the end of the day, it's still  just a ley turtle in a creek. So, I suppose both things are true.

[00:05:45]A lot of people when they go to  the creek are scared of snapping turtles or snakes. What I'm scared of  is this stuff right here, poison ivy.

[00:05:56]Even so, I still respect it because it's a plant  that can kick my butt, which is kind of cool.

[00:06:12]Alrighty. Well, I can think of worse  ways to spend an afternoon than in a creek with a snapping turtle. I also  went ahead and picked up some trash I found in the creek. I figured it was the  least I could do for the snapping turtle since he let me point a camera at him and talk  about his leech invasion. So... But anyways, thank you guys for coming along on this mini  snorkeling adventure. Tune in next time for a full-blown adventure. As always, thank  you guys for watching and I will see you... next time.