Where is the snapping turtle legal?

Family Chelyridae-Snapping Turtles: All species (D)

How this rule works: § 671(b) defines (D) detrimental and (W) welfare. § 671.1(a) lists permit types; none covers pet keeping. The only possession permit, Animal Care, requires lawful possession in California before January 1992.

W-07, Appendix A, C: Family Chelydridae not approved in regulation

Chelydridae appears nowhere in Chapter W-7. Appendix A's turtle block lists five families and this is not one of them, Appendix B is three snake genera, and Appendix C, the wild-collection list, does not include it either. Under § 701 anything the chapter does not allow is unlawful to possess, so a snapping turtle is regulated wildlife with no pet licence available. The snapping turtle is native to Colorado's eastern plains, which is the context for the one route the chapter does leave: § 704(B)(7)(a) lets someone who lawfully held a snapping turtle collected on or before 1 May 2026 keep it for the animal's life, on filing a CPW Legacy Report by 30 July 2026.

Existing owners: A snapping turtle legally collected on or before 1 May 2026 may be kept and transported within Colorado for the life of the animal if a CPW Legacy Report was filed by 30 July 2026. No new wild capture is allowed.

How this rule works: CPW's own page, with four downloadable lists, herpetofauna, mammals, birds, and fish and marine animals, each row giving a species and the regulation that decides it: Domestic, Unregulated, Appendix A or B, Appendix C, Regulated or Prohibited. Updated 1 May 2026. Not exhaustive, and CPW takes questions on unlisted species by email. This is the agency applying its own rule, which matters most where Appendix A turns on whether a species is native only to the tropics.

The snapping turtle is native to Delaware, so it is not exotic and the Agriculture permit chapter does not reach it. What applies instead is DNREC's native wildlife regime, under which native reptiles are not available for private ownership. The narrow carve-out Delaware does allow, a captive-bred native snake in an aberrant colour morph held under permit, is written for snakes and does not help a turtle.

How this rule works: Delaware Code Online's game and fish possession chapter administered by DNREC, paired with a separate exotic species permit chapter at Del. Code tit. 3, c. 72.

Chelydra serpentina

Named on Part A, research and exhibition only.

How this rule works: Part A animals may be brought in by a university or a licensed exhibitor under permit and may not be kept as pets. Part B, published separately as AR-71RB, is the private and commercial use list and was checked as well: it runs to hoofed stock, giraffes, otters, seals, macropods and three named parrots, and contains none of the animals in this dataset.

(8) Snapping Turtles................ All species in the family Chelydridae

Named at family level on the prohibited list, so importation, transportation and possession are all unlawful and no subspecies argument helps. The only permits available under this section go to accredited zoos and aquariums, universities and government agencies for research, other scientific institutions, commercial aquaculture, and tax-exempt nonprofits exhibiting wildlife for education, none of which is a pet route. Nevada leaves county and city ordinances untouched, and Clark County, Las Vegas and Henderson are all stricter than the state, so check the municipality before the state.

How this rule works: Two lists: 503.110 prohibits, 503.140 names species that may be possessed, transported, imported and exported without a permit. Nevada counties and cities are frequently stricter than the state, notably Clark County, Henderson and Las Vegas.

Reptiles (Reptilia). All Helodermatidae ...; all front-fanged venomous snakes, even if devenomized ...; all venomous, mid-or rear-fanged, Duvernoy-glanded members of the family Colubridae, even if devenomized; any member, or hybrid offspring of the family Boidae, including, but not limited to, the common or green anaconda and yellow anaconda; any member of the family Pythonidae, including, but not limited to, the African rock python, Indian or Burmese python, Amethystine or scrub python; any member of the family Varanidae, including the white throated monitor, Bosc's or African savannah monitor, Komodo monitor or dragon, Nile monitor, crocodile monitor, water monitor, Bornean earless monitor; any member of the family Iguanidae, including the green or common iguana; any member of the family teiidae, including, but not limited to, the golden, common, or black and white tegu; all members of the family Chelydridae, including snapping turtle and alligator snapping turtle; all turtles and tortoises with a carapace length of less than four (4) inches; and all members of the order Crocodylia ...

The clause is "all members of the family Chelydridae, including snapping turtle and alligator snapping turtle", so both species are named and the family is taken. New York State allows a licensed snapping turtle season with a twelve-inch minimum; the city prohibits the animal outright. § 161.01(d) is worth knowing alongside the prohibition: a prohibited animal may be seized by any authorized city employee, the owner has three business days to request a hearing, and with the Department's written consent the animal may be removed to a jurisdiction where it is not prohibited. That last provision is the closest thing to relief in the article.

How this rule works: A city rule that is stricter than any state on this map, and it works in three layers. It opens with a standard rather than a list, deeming a wild animal to be "any animal which is naturally inclined to do harm and capable of inflicting harm upon human beings". It then adds, at (b)(ii), any wildlife protected or endangered under federal, STATE or local law, which imports New York State's protected wildlife scheme into the city wholesale. And it closes with 24 numbered clauses that work mostly by family: all cats other than Felis catus and their hybrids, all dogs other than Canis familiaris, all Mustelidae including the ferret by name, all squirrels, all marsupials, all large rodents, all Boidae, all Pythonidae, all Varanidae, all Iguanidae, all teiidae, all Chelydridae, all venomous spiders including the tarantula by name, and all turtles under four inches. § 161.01(c) is the short answer to what is left: gerbil, hamster, guinea pig, domesticated rabbit, and small birds such as parakeet, parrot, canary and finch.

Snapping turtle — Chelydridae — All species and hybrids;

The whole family is prohibited, so the alligator snapping turtle goes with the common one. Chelydridae appears nowhere on the noncontrolled list, which clears eight other turtle families. OAR 635-056-0150 allows someone who held the animal before the commission listed it to keep it for its life, on proof of lawful prior possession, with no transfer, sale or transport inside Oregon and no release. Oregon cities and counties may prohibit exotic animals by ordinance on top of state law, so check the municipality as well.

How this rule works: The ban list, and the one to check before assuming a common pet is fine in Oregon. It reaches the prairie dog, the capybara, the southern flying squirrel, the tiger salamander, the snapping turtle and the whole of Trachemys, all of which are ordinary pet-trade animals elsewhere on this map.

The possession of native turtles is restricted to those institutions identified within § 3.7(C) of this Part... Turtles considered native to Rhode Island and which possession as pets is prohibited include the following: ...Snapping Turtle (Chelydra serpentina),

Possession is limited to the Department, USFWS, AZA zoos, research institutions and USDA licensed exhibitors.

How this rule works: One of the most species-specific schemes in the country. § 3.6 defines domestic animals, § 3.7 sets general prohibitions, § 3.9 governs permits, and § 3.17 is the long exempt list of animals that need no exotic animal possession permit. Anything not domestic, not native and not on the § 3.17 list needs a permit.

A valid Kansas fishing license shall be required to take common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles.

The Kansas column was written against K.S.A. 32-1301, the dangerous regulated animal statute, which names six cats, bears and non-native venomous snakes and answers nothing here. The pair that decides a Kansas cell is K.S.A. 32-1002(a)(2), which makes it unlawful to possess any wildlife at all "unless and except as permitted by law or rules and regulations adopted by the secretary", and the two regulations that do the permitting. K.A.R. 115-20-3 permits exotic wildlife, and 115-20-3(d) reads exotic as a species not native or indigenous to Kansas and not present here as an established wild population. Chelydra serpentina is one of only five herps the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas records in every county, so it is a Kansas native and 115-20-3 cannot reach it. Nor does the native permission: 115-20-2(b)(13) puts reptiles on the takeable list "except common snapping turtles and soft-shelled turtles", which takes this animal straight back out, and the cap in 115-20-2(e) never applies to it. The reason for the carve-out is that Kansas handles these two as fishing species. K.A.R. 115-7-5(b) sets the legal methods, hand, hook and fishing line, set line, hand dip net, seine, turtle trap and gig, and (d) requires a valid Kansas fishing license to take one. The bag and possession limits come from the fishing regulations rather than from Article 20. So the license-first answer is the real one: Kansas gives no no-permit route to a snapping turtle and no dealer route either, because the only permission in the rules is a licensed take. K.A.R. 115-9-7(i) then exempts the possession of wildlife that was legally acquired by the individual, so the license attaches to getting the animal rather than to keeping it.

How this rule works: The rule that 115-20-2(b)(13) carves the common snapping turtle and the soft-shelled turtles out for. Kansas handles those two as fishing species rather than as takeable reptiles: subsection (b) sets the legal methods and subsection (d) requires a valid Kansas fishing license to take them. 115-9-7 is the other half of the licensing picture, because its subsection (i) exempts the possession of wildlife that was legally acquired by the individual from needing a license at all, which is why none of the Kansas caps carry a license condition for a bought animal.

Testudines (Turtles And Tortoises)

Chelydra serpentina is native to Maine and does not appear on the list of unrestricted species, which is the ordinary pattern: the list is aimed at exotics and native wildlife is handled under the general permit requirement.

How this rule works: The list 12 M.R.S. § 12152(1-A) requires the department to maintain and 09-137 CMR ch. 7 § 7.06(1) describes: species needing no importation, exhibition, propagation, research or possession permit, which pet shops may also trade. Dated 11 August 2017 on every page, and this is the version IFW still serves. Three headings do most of the work: Reptilia, Serpentes and Testudines each carry "Captive Bred Origin Only", and an asterisk on an entry removes anything on the USFWS injurious or threatened and endangered lists, in CITES Appendix I, or on the IUCN Red List as Endangered, Critically Endangered or Extinct in the Wild.

those species of mammals... and nonvenomous reptiles and amphibians native to Missouri

Chelydra serpentina is a native nonvenomous reptile and so falls in Class I.

How this rule works: Class I is native Missouri mammals, reptiles and amphibians plus birds native to the continental United States. Class II is the venomous natives, mountain lion, wolf and black bear. Class III is cervids. An animal that is none of these is outside the Wildlife Code entirely.

1,5 Snapping turtle Chelydra serpentina

Category 1 is an individual, so unlike the serval this one is open to a private keeper who holds a permit to possess wildlife.

How this rule works: Readopted in full by Document #14558, effective 21 April 2026. Four buckets and a closing rule. Fis 804.02 is the non-controlled possession list, Fis 804.03 the prohibited list, Fis 804.05 with Table 800.2 the controlled table, and Fis 804.04(b) then says "All species not specifically listed under the categories of non-controlled, prohibited, or controlled shall be designated as prohibited." Fis 803 runs the same three-way split for importation against Table 800.1. The number beside a species in either table is the permittee category from Fis 802.01: 1 is an individual, 5 an exhibitor, so a species marked 5 alone cannot be held privately. Fis 802.05 is the waiver for unlisted species and subsection (c) closes it to categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7, which leaves only exhibitors.

Rep/Amph | Turtle | Chelydridae | Chelydra serpentina serpentina | Eastern Snapping Turtle | II

Group II on the Director's list: not known to be invasive or dangerous, but an importation permit is still required before the animal may be brought into New Mexico. Both the eastern and Florida snapping turtles are Group II. One caveat on all of this: 19.35.7 NMAC is an importation rule, its stated scope being persons who desire to bring wildlife species into New Mexico, so it governs getting the animal here rather than keeping one already in the state.

How this rule works: The roughly 1,300 row table that 19.35.7 NMAC points at and that earlier research could not obtain. Every row gives a family, a scientific name, a common name and a roman numeral group. Group I is semi-domesticated and needs no importation permit. Group II is not known to be invasive or dangerous and needs a permit. Group III presents minimal or manageable concerns and needs a permit with specific provisions attached. Group IV is prohibited to the general public. The list is reached from the download page rather than a direct file URL, and the site needs a User-Agent header.

monotypic species and subspecies of reptiles and amphibians not indigenous to Oklahoma are exempt from import and export requirements and commercial and noncommercial wildlife breeder's license

The exemption is written for reptiles not indigenous to Oklahoma. Chelydra serpentina is native here, so it falls outside it.

How this rule works: One of the most permissive exemption lists in the country, naming the fennec fox, the sugar glider, the coatimundi, the wallaby and primates individually. Note what the exemptions are from: import and export permits and commercial and noncommercial wildlife breeder licences, not a ban. Subsection (c) exempts non-indigenous reptiles and amphibians as a class, with a two-limb carve-out for species that could establish here and are injurious under federal rules. Oklahoma's own rules site, rules.ok.gov, returns 403 to this container, so this is read from Cornell LII and cited to the official section.

Species not found on the Restricted, Unrestricted or Domestic species lists are considered Restricted.

The snapping turtle is on neither the Unrestricted nor the Restricted list, and Vermont treats that absence as a restriction rather than a gap. Chelydra is on neither list, so despite being native to Vermont it cannot be kept. A permit exists on paper but not for a pet: Regulation 881 says the Commissioner shall not issue a permit for keeping or possessing a wild animal in captivity except for bona fide scientific or educational purposes. So restricted here means a private keeper cannot have one, not that there is paperwork to fill in.

How this rule works: The list the whole Vermont answer turns on, and the one earlier research could not obtain. Anything on it may be kept with no permit. Its closing line is the important part: species not found on the Restricted, Unrestricted or Domestic species lists are considered Restricted, which makes Vermont an inverted-list state like Hawaii. Several entries are marked Captive Bred Only, which is a real condition rather than a note. The site refuses automated requests without a User-Agent header.

(6) Turtles. (a) Take and possession ... 1. No person shall take more than one turtle per day unless authorized by permit ... 4. No person shall take Escambia map turtles (Graptemys ernsti), cooters (Pseudemys spp.), striped mud turtles (Lower Keys population) (Kinosternon baurii) or snapping turtles (Chelydra spp.) from the wild. ... 8. No person shall possess more than two Escambia map turtles (Graptemys ernsti), two box turtles of Florida native species ... or two loggerhead musk turtles (Sternotherus minor). ... (c) Sale - No person shall buy, sell, or possess for sale turtles, their eggs or parts thereof, that have been taken from the wild.

Wild take is barred outright. 68A-25.002(6)(a)4 says no person shall take Escambia map turtles, cooters, Lower Keys striped mud turtles "or snapping turtles (Chelydra spp.)" from the wild, and (6)(c) bars buying or selling any turtle taken from the wild. What is not barred is possession: the common snapping turtle is not on the imperiled list at 68A-27.003, is not among the species capped at two, and is a nonvenomous unprotected reptile for the purposes of 68A-6.003(14)(a), so a lawfully acquired captive-bred animal needs no permit. The alligator snapping turtle is the opposite: 68A-25.002(6)(a)5 bars taking, possessing, transporting or selling any Macrochelys at all.

How this rule works: The rule that reaches Florida's native turtles, and it is separate from both the captive wildlife chapter and the nonnative one, which is why it is easy to miss. Subsection (6) caps take at one turtle per day, bars taking snapping turtles, cooters and two other groups from the wild entirely, caps possession at two for the Florida native box turtles and two other species, and bars buying or selling any turtle taken from the wild. None of it turns on a permit for an ordinary keeper; it is a set of numbers and a sale ban.

Bullfrogs and common snapping turtles may be taken only June 15 through October 15. There is no closed season on all other non-listed native herptiles. The daily harvest limit for bullfrogs is eight, with a possession limit of 16. The daily harvest limit for common snapping turtles is two, with a possession limit of four.

Illinois pulls the common snapping turtle out of the general herptile cap and gives it its own regime, the only reptile besides the bullfrog treated this way. It is a native taxon under § 885.40, and it is the only one with a closed season: a sport fishing licence, take only between 15 June and 15 October, two a day and four in possession. Bowfishing for it is barred in sixteen named southern counties, and § 30-10 bars collecting wild turtles for turtle races in the seven counties where ranavirus has been documented. The alligator snapping turtle is a different animal and is state endangered. Illinois is a home rule state, so a municipal ordinance can be stricter than anything above and is often the rule that actually decides this.

How this rule works: Official Joint Committee on Administrative Rules text, amended effective 31 July 2025. § 885.40 is the list of Illinois native herptile taxa, which decides whether the possession cap applies to a species at all; § 885.20 sets the seasons and limits; § 885.80 sets the $50 Herpetoculture Permit; and § 885.105(j), new in 2025, sweeps named corn snake morph lines into the endangered species regime.

This section governs the: (1) sale; (2) transport for sale; or (3) offer for sale; of any reptile or amphibian native to Indiana regardless of place of origin. (b) Except as otherwise provided in this section and in section 9 of this rule, an individual must not sell, transport for sale, or offer to sell a reptile or amphibian that is native to Indiana.

The common snapping turtle is native to Indiana, which is what decides it, and Indiana's native rule is unusual in reaching a purchased animal. 9-5-7(c) lists the eastern snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina serpentina, among the 99 taxa whose sale it governs, and 9-5-7(a) says the section applies "regardless of place of origin", so a captive-bred animal from an out-of-state breeder is caught by it just as a wild-caught one is. Selling, offering for sale or transporting for sale is barred; possessing is not, subject to 9-5-6(f)'s cap of four live animals of any one native species. Two exits exist. 9-5-7(f) exempts a captive-bred animal with albinistic, leucistic or xanthic colour morphology, on the same logic New Jersey uses for corn snake morphs, that a morph is visibly not a wild-caught animal. And 9-5-9 provides a reptile captive breeding licence under which sales are lawful. Indiana adds a wild-take regime on top for this species specifically: 9-5-6(c) allows four a day of the snapping turtle and the two softshells combined, only between July 1 and March 31, and only at twelve inches or more of carapace length. The alligator snapping turtle is a separate entry on the same list and a different animal.

How this rule works: The rule 312 IAC 9-11 does not reach. 9-5-1(b) makes every reptile and amphibian native to Indiana a protected wild animal, 9-5-6(f) caps possession at four per species, and 9-5-7 bars selling a native species "regardless of place of origin" against a list of 99 taxa given by binomial. 9-5-7(f) then exempts captive-bred albinistic, leucistic and xanthic morphs. Indiana's own rules site, iar.iga.in.gov, serves its React shell for every path including its own script bundles, so this is read from Cornell LII and cited to the official section.

A person may not catch a snapping turtle from the waters of the State by the use of a hook and line, trot line, bow and arrow, spear, gig or gig iron, or any other device capable of piercing any part of a turtle.

The snapping turtle is a Maryland native and appears on none of the three native herptile lists, which looks like an omission until you notice which agency has it: Maryland treats the species as a fishery, under the Fisheries Service and Natural Resources Article §§ 4-218 and 4-738 rather than the wildlife article. This chapter governs taking one from the wild, with prohibited gear, a season, a prescribed way of measuring the carapace and a harvest permit card. What it does not do is set up a pet possession permit, so a captive animal is not reached by the herptile chapter and a wild-caught one runs through the fisheries rules instead. Subsection (e) of § 10-621 preserves stricter county and municipal rules, and Maryland counties use that power, so the local ordinance is worth checking before the state list.

How this rule works: Maryland handles the snapping turtle through the Fisheries Service rather than the wildlife rules, which is why it appears on none of the three native herptile lists in COMAR 08.03.11. This chapter governs taking one from the wild: prohibited gear, a season, a measuring method and a harvest permit card.

All species of turtles may be kept without a permit, up to a limit of 100 turtles and/or eggs, in any combination, of each species, except for the following species for which a permit is always required: 1. Species categorically non-exempt pursuant to 321 CMR 9.01(3). 2. Argentina or Chaco Tortoise (Geochelone chilensis). 3. Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) and all other species in the genus Gopherus. 4. Pancake Tortoise (Malacochersus tornieri). 5. Spotted Turtle (Clemmys guttata). 6. Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta, including all subspecies and forms).

Chelydra serpentina is not one of the five named exceptions, is IUCN least concern and is not on the Massachusetts list, so it falls under the general turtle allowance: no permit, and a cap of 100 turtles or eggs of the species in any combination. The cap is written for dealers rather than keepers and no pet owner will meet it. The separate rule to know is about acquisition: MassWildlife allows taking two snapping turtles from the wild in Massachusetts as personal pets under 321 CMR 3.05, and animals taken that way may not be sold, bartered or exchanged, or released back.

How this rule works: Massachusetts runs a closed white list and says so in terms: a species not on it, or listed as requiring a permit, is not exempt from M.G.L. c. 131, § 23. Two structural points decide most of this state. First, 9.01(2) defines "species" as a "distinct non-domestic VERTEBRATE animal population", and § 23 itself reaches only fish, birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, so terrestrial invertebrates are outside the scheme entirely. Second, 9.01(3) is a categorical override that most readings of this rule miss: no species may be exempted if it is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, appears in the IUCN Red Book(s), or is on the Massachusetts endangered, threatened and special concern list at 321 CMR 10.90. Nearly every group listing in 9.01 repeats the cross-reference, so it operates as a live carve-out rather than as drafting furniture, and it is what pulls the Burmese python out of Boidae, the crested gecko out of Gekkonidae and the box turtle out of the turtle allowance.

A fishing license is required to take amphibians and reptiles for personal use.

Not protected, and the only turtle here with an open season. The conditions are specific: the season runs July 15 to September 15, the limit is two a day and four in total, and a fishing license is required to take one. Buying one is not an option, because reptiles and amphibians may not be bought, sold or offered for sale in Michigan, so a snapping turtle has to come from your own lawful take.

How this rule works: The order that actually governs herps in Michigan, and the one most summaries miss because it sits in the fishing rules rather than the wildlife rules. Its reach is the phrase "any state reptile or amphibian from the wild", so it binds native species taken here and leaves captive-bred non-native pets alone. Michigan.gov blocks automated access, so this was read from the official guide as published by the state's regulations publisher.

A person may not take, possess, or transport turtles without a resident angling license and a recreational turtle license. ... A person does not need the licenses specified under subdivision 1: ... (2) when buying a turtle at a retail outlet

Turtles are the gap in the 2021 pet reptile rule. Section 97A.401, subd. 8 covers snakes, lizards and salamanders and stops there, so turtles stay under their own older regime, which is a licence requirement with a short list of exemptions rather than a source condition. The snapping turtle is the one animal on this map that Minnesota treats as its own harvestable native turtle. It and the western painted turtle are the only two a recreational turtle licence covers, and the only two native turtles that may be sold as pets, under a turtle seller's licence. Minn. R. 6256.0500 sets the size floor at a shell length greater than 12 inches. A retail purchase is exempt from the licence requirement, and taking one from the wild needs both an angling licence and a recreational turtle licence, for personal use only.

How this rule works: Turtles are handled apart from the 2021 snake, lizard and salamander rule and were not included in it. Subd. 1 requires an angling licence plus a recreational turtle licence to take, possess or transport turtles; subd. 2c exempts, among others, buying a turtle at a retail outlet, which is what leaves a pet-shop turtle or tortoise unlicensed.

003.05 SNAPPING TURTLES: 003.05A It shall be unlawful to take snapping turtles except by hand, hand net, hook and line, bow and arrow or gaff. 003.05B It shall be unlawful to sell, offer for sale, trade or barter for any snapping turtle. ... 003.05E The take of any turtle(s) exceeding the daily bag limits shall be released immediately.

Nebraska answers this animal in its fishing regulations rather than its wildlife ones, which is why it is easy to miss. 166 NAC 10 excludes game species from its herp rules, and the snapping turtle is handled at 164 NAC 6 alongside fish, bullfrogs and mussels, with a daily bag limit and a possession limit set annually by the Commission, take restricted to hand, hand net, hook and line, bow or gaff, and a fishing permit behind all of it. The clause that matters most to a keeper is § 003.05B: it is unlawful to sell, offer for sale, trade or barter any snapping turtle, so there is no lawful in-state commerce in one at any number.

How this rule works: Nebraska renumbered its Game and Parks regulations: what used to be 163 NAC ch. 4 is now Title 166, and captive wildlife has its own chapter 8 rather than a subsection. Anything on this map citing "163 NAC ch. 4, § 008" is pointing at a title that is now called ADMINISTRATION. Chapter 8 has three operative parts. § 001.01B bars retaining any WILD BIRD or WILD MAMMAL in captivity except a listed set of Nebraska natives under a Captive Wildlife Permit. § 001.07A prohibits six species outright, none of them a pet: the Asian raccoon dog, white-tailed and mule deer, red deer, wild pigs and bighorn or thinhorn sheep. And § 001.08A is a closed importation list, which is what actually answers most exotic mammals here, because they are not wild mammals and so the permit scheme never reaches them. Chapter 10 does the same job for reptiles and amphibians and is limited to species native to Nebraska.

"Small game" means black, gray and fox squirrels, European hares, varying hares, cottontail rabbits, native frogs, native salamanders, native turtles, native lizards, native snakes, coyotes, red fox (Vulpes vulpes) and gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) except captive bred red fox or gray fox, raccoon, opossum, or weasel, skunk, bobcat, lynx, muskrat, mink, except mink born in captivity, fisher, otter, beaver, sable and marten but does not include coydogs. ... No person shall, at any time of the year, buy, sell, offer or expose for sale, transport, or have in his possession any fish protected by law, game, protected wildlife ... whether taken within the state or coming from without the state, except as permitted by the Fish and Wildlife Law.

The one native New York reptile with an open season, which is why it is the only one a private person can lawfully hold. Taking requires a hunting licence, runs 15 July to 30 September statewide, and is limited to a firearm or a bow. The carapace must measure twelve inches or longer in a straight line, the daily bag is five and the season bag is thirty. Everything else about New York natives flows from the same definition and comes out the other way: native turtles are small game, and the snapping turtle is the only one the department opened a season for.

How this rule works: Two sentences and a list. Subdivision (a) defines native snakes as sixteen named species including the common garter snake, the eastern milk snake, the eastern hognose snake and the black rat snake, and subdivision (b) reads in its entirety "Open season. None." That is what turns the small game classification into a prohibition. DEC states the result plainly in its own season summary: for turtles, "The only turtle species for which there is an open hunting season is the snapping turtle. You may not harvest, take, or possess any other turtle species at any time", and for the rest, "You may not harvest, take, or possess any native snakes, lizards, or salamanders at any time." New York publishes the NYCRR only through Westlaw, which serves document pages to a browser User-Agent but not the Part 175 possession chapter, so the seasons and this section are the readable half of the regulation.

Common snapping turtle ( Chelydra serpentina ) | July 1 to October 31 | 15 | 30

The only turtle in the table with a real open season, and personal possession of up to 30 needs no permit. Three conditions bind. The animal has to be taken in season, taking requires a fishing license, and § 79.5 requires an annual permit before anyone may take, catch, kill or possess snapping turtles for sale, barter or trade. Then § 79.10(a) bars importing a native species from another jurisdiction, so a Pennsylvania snapping turtle has to come from your own lawful take rather than a seller in another state.

How this rule works: Official Pennsylvania Code text; the catch-all 'native species not listed' line sets a 1-per-day/1-in-possession limit, and companion §79.4 requires a permit for continued possession regardless of the animal's origin.

A person without a nongame or nongame dealer’s permit may: (A) possess six or fewer specimens of a species of nongame wildlife listed in §65.331(e) of this title, provided the person does not engage in commercial activity involving the nongame wildlife; and (B) possess 25 or fewer specimens of a species of nongame wildlife listed in §65.331(d) of this title, provided the person does not engage in commercial activity involving the nongame wildlife.

The common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, is on the § 65.331(e) list: six without a permit, no commercial activity. Do not read across from the alligator snapping turtle, Macrochelys temminckii, which Texas lists as threatened under 31 TAC § 65.175, where § 65.171(b)(2) bars taking, possessing, transporting, importing, exporting or selling it altogether. Two snapping turtles, two entirely different answers, and the name is what runs them together. The cap reaches captive-bred animals: § 65.325(a) says nongame wildlife "includes captive-bred nongame wildlife", so a pet shop receipt does not lift it.

How this rule works: The rule that decides a Texas pet question whenever the animal is native, and the one the dangerous wild animal statute distracts from. § 65.327(a) starts from a prohibition, "no person may collect, acquire, possess, import, export, cause the import or export of, or engage in a commercial activity involving nongame wildlife", and § 65.327(b)(3) then gives an unlicensed keeper two numbers: 25 of a species on the § 65.331(d) list, six of anything else. Three definitions carry the weight. § 65.325(a) says nongame wildlife "includes captive-bred nongame wildlife", so buying from a breeder does not lift the cap. The same sentence limits the subchapter to VERTEBRATE wildlife, which is narrower than the statute it implements, since Parks & Wild. Code § 67.001 says "vertebrate and invertebrate", and that gap is what leaves every terrestrial invertebrate outside the scheme entirely. And § 65.326(2) defines commercial activity as "the sale, offer for sale, exchange, or barter", so buying is not itself commercial activity, and § 65.327(b)(1)(B) lets a permitted dealer "sell lawfully obtained nongame wildlife to anyone". The two species lists are attached figures rather than statutory text: the (d) list names about 100 species, and the (e) list is longer and expressly "not limited to" what it names, so a native species on neither list falls to the six cap.

The daily limit for bullfrogs shall be 15 and for snapping turtles shall be five. Snapping turtles shall only be taken from June 1 to September 30 and must have a minimum curved-line carapace length of 13 inches.

Virginia runs two schemes and 4VAC15-20-50 decides which one an animal is in, so the exotic permit table is the wrong rule for anything Virginia already has. A nonnative (exotic) animal is one "not naturally occurring in Virginia, excluding domestic and naturalized species", which puts every native and every naturalized species outside 4VAC15-30-40 and inside 4VAC15-360-10. Native and naturalized status is not a judgment call here: it is fixed by a document incorporated by reference, the department’s 2024 List of Native and Naturalized Fauna of Virginia, where an asterisk marks a naturalized species and two asterisks one native in some areas and naturalized in others. The snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, is on the native list with no asterisk, so the exotic permit table never reached it. It is also the one animal in the chapter that the one-per-address cap does not bind, because 4VAC15-360-10(A) applies that cap "unless specifically listed in this subsection" and subdivision 5 lists the snapping turtle with numbers of its own: a daily limit of five, a season running 1 June to 30 September, and a minimum curved-line carapace length of 13 inches, with no taking from the banks or waters of designated stocked trout waters. The size minimum is the condition that bites a keeper, because it rules out the hatchling that is how almost anyone acquires one. The snapping turtle is on neither the red-eared slider bar nor the Species of Greatest Conservation Need list in 4VAC15-360-10(A)(6).

How this rule works: The rule the exotic permit table does not reach, and the one that answers a Virginia native or naturalized herp: one individual of any native or naturalized species of amphibian or reptile per physical address, live, for private use and not for sale or export. It covers aquatic invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles and nongame fish, and no mammal.

A person may possess a live native snapping turtle for the purpose of harvest authorized under s. NR 19.275 (4), 21.13 (4), or 22.13 (4) for no more than 7 days.

Wisconsin treats the snapping turtle as a harvestable native rather than a pet. Collecting or possessing native turtles requires a small game hunting or fishing approval, and the recreated rule caps live possession at 7 days tied to an authorized harvest. Wisconsin repealed and recreated NR 16.12(3) effective 1 January 2027 (CR 25-092). Until then the rule allows taking or possessing up to 5 individuals of each non-listed native species. From that date possession of live native reptiles and amphibians is prohibited outright except under narrow exemptions, of which the one that matters to keepers is NR 16.12(3)(k): captive-bred colour variants acquired from a legal source. A wild-type native animal will no longer be keepable.

How this rule works: Official Wisconsin State Legislature code text; caps take/possession of native, non-listed amphibians, lizards and snakes at 5 individuals per species, with NR 16.13 layering on the purchase restriction for native species.

All species of the order Crocodilia ... All species of the family Chelydridae. Common name: snapping turtles; and All species of the genus Gopherus. Common name: gopher tortoises, including the desert tortoise

Named at family level, so every snapping turtle is restricted live wildlife and needs the appropriate special licence under R12-4-409(A) or a lawful exemption. The exemptions at R12-4-407 are about transit, fairs and circuses, photography, advertising, veterinary care and registered research facilities, none of which is a pet route, so a private keeper has no practical way in. Arizona restricts only two turtle groups and this is one of them, the other being its own gopher tortoises.

How this rule works: The operative rule. Restricted live wildlife needs a special licence, and the lists run by order and family rather than by species, so the whole of Carnivora is caught while most of the pet reptile trade is not. Two exceptions are written in by name: the genus Atelerix, the pet hedgehogs, and the genus Oryctolagus, which the rule says are not wildlife at all. Two subsections do quiet work: (D) exempts domestic animals, defined at R12-4-401 as a species that does not exist in the wild, and (E) pulls hybrids back in whenever one parent species is on the list. Note that the AZGFD commission rules PDF circulating as Supp. 13-2 is a 2013 edition and predates the Atelerix and Oryctolagus exceptions; read the current text, not that one.

It is unlawful for a person, except as otherwise expressly provided, to take, capture, or kill fish, frogs, or turtles except during the open season established by the commission.

Chelydra serpentina is native here and taking one from the wild falls under the licence, season and possession limit rules. Subsection 2 exempts snapping turtles from the noncommercial season only, not from the rest.

How this rule works: The native wildlife side. § 481A.67 governs taking turtles.

No person shall collect or possess more than 10 restricted turtles, as listed in Paragraph G.3 herein, in any combination, with no individual species to exceed two per person at any time... i. Snapping Turtle—Chelydra serpentina;

Two per person, a basic recreational fishing licence to collect, no commercial use of native turtles, and captive breeding is unlawful without department approval.

How this rule works: Rewritten in January 2025 and now one of the strictest reptile rules in the country. Three tiers: prohibited nonnative species, restricted nonnative species needing a permit, and a general rule that any constrictor over eight feet needs a restricted snake permit.

Additionally, persons may possess and hold captive fish, bullfrogs, mussels, aquatic turtles, alligators and other aquatic wildlife in compliance with Code Chapters 26.00, 27.00, 29.00, 30.00, 31.00, 32.00, 33.00, 34.00, 35.00, and Addenda Chapters I1.00, J1.00, and V1.00.

The unrestricted list expressly hands aquatic turtles to a different set of chapters rather than answering for them, and the common snapping turtle is native to Arkansas and commercially harvested there. The answer exists, but not in this document.

How this rule works: Species exempt from Codes 09.02 (possession of non-native wildlife restricted), 09.07 (breeder/dealer permit) and 09.10 (importation permit), named individually with binomials. Read it out of the codebook rather than the compiled PDF AGFC posted at agfc.com in 2022, which is the version that circulates as "the Arkansas list" and is two revisions behind: it lacks the rosy boa and the whole Anoline Lizards entry with its Arkansas-native exception. The compiled PDF says so itself, that the codebook lists "take precedence".