Hydrologic changes that could affect population levels of this species in the study area such as nutrification, siltation, chemical contaminants, and construction of flood control dams are discussed. It is probable that this species has suffered a drastic population decline in southeast Oklahoma during the past 60 years. This paper documents records of alligator snapping turtles from the Little River system of southeastern McCurtain County, Oklahoma, by providing the locations and other data regarding the remains of this species as well as a live specimen, and by summarizing interviews with local people who have encountered them during the past 50 years. The Little River originates in the Ouachita Mountains of southwest LeFlore County, flows eastward into northeastern Pushmataha County, and south into and through McCurtain County, and enters southwestern Arkansas. The streams of the Little River system exhibit bottom topographies of alternating shallow riffle areas and deep holes.
Flow is erratic depending on rainfall in the watershed, but holes retain water year round.
Because riverbanks in this system are not stabilized, floodwater erosion results in trees and brush being swept into the rivers and, after water levels recede, deposited in the deep holes. These tangled masses of trees provide habitat for a diversity of aquatic and semi-aquatic species including the alligator snapping turtle. Additional specimen evidence from the study area includes five carapaces and a photograph in Broken Bow, one live turtle and a skull in Tulsa, and a skeleton at the Oklahoma Archeological Survey in Norman. This turtle was gigged by Stiles' father, Robert H., in the Mountain Fork River downstream from the Highway 70 bridge in approximately 1945. Unfortunately, it was not weighed.