For Immediate Release:
June 28, 2024

Contact:
Jessica Ward, Communications Manager
jessica.ward@ks.gov

KDWP Partners with Missouri State University to Reintroduce Alligator Snapping Turtles to Kansas Waters

PRATT – Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks staff are teaming up with researchers from Missouri State University to release juvenile alligator snapping turtles back into the Neosho River this fall.

Alligator snapping turtles have not been observed in Kansas since 1991 and have declined from over-harvesting and habitat fragmentation from the construction of dams and reservoirs throughout their range. Because of the decline, the species is currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act of 1973.

A captive breeding program for alligator snapping turtles was established in 1999 by the USFWS at a hatchery facility in Tishomingo, Oklahoma. Since then, reintroduction stockings of approximately 1,200 juvenile turtles have occurred on the Caney, Neosho, and Verdigris rivers in northeast Oklahoma; however, none of the released turtles have yet to be captured in Kansas.

"The establishment of alligator snapping turtles back into Kansas waters is unlikely without human intervention due to several dams on each of these rivers,” said Trevor Starks, Aquatic Species Recovery Coordinator. “Humans are the primary reason this species no longer occurs here, and I think it is fitting that humans be the primary reason they come back.”

The juvenile turtles will be tagged before being released, allowing researchers to track them to determine how far they move. They will eventually be recaptured to check survival and growth rates.

Stockings of imperiled species such as alligator snapping turtles and Neosho Mucket mussels released last year are made possible through the Kansas Aquatic Species Recovery Program. Landowner agreements signed under this program allow KDWP to conduct species reintroductions while providing regulatory protections to the landowners.

For more information about the program or to learn more about how you can get involved, visit Kansas Aquatic Species Recovery Program.

For more information about alligator snapping turtle conservation, visit Alligator Snapping Turtle Recovery Program Updates.

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