Herps in Society and Culture: The Portrayal of Herps in Animal Crossing New Horizons

By now, many of you have probably heard about the video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Basically, this game is about building up your own desert island and turning it into a 5-star town. A major component of this game is collecting all sorts of fish, bugs, and fossils in order to build up the island's museum. The idea for this post came when, seven days ago, I caught a snapping turtle in a clifftop river on my island. I looked it up, and it turns out that there are a handful of herps that can be caught at specific times of the year in certain locations. In this post I will be analyzing how accurate their portrayal is in this game.

This is the snapping turtle that I caught two weeks ago. As is stated above, I caught it in a clifftop river at night. According to the game (which is played in real time), they can be caught from April to October and from 9PM-4AM. This would make them nocturnal. Snapping turtles (family Chelydridae), are indeed freshwater turtles that inhabit rivers although they are not strong swimmers; rather, they are considered "bottom walkers". So far, everything seems accurate enough. These turtles are also hibernate during the winter making their seasonal variability accurate as well. They also do appear to be nocturnal, preferring to bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of their pond or river, hidden from their prey's sight. Obviously, snapping turtles are not fish despite the fact they are categorized at such in the game, and I'm not sure how luring one out of hiding with a fishing rod would go over. It is apparent that this family of turtles was portrayed fairly accurately in the game.

Tadpoles and frogs can also be caught in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I have not been able to catch a frog, as they are only active from May-August, but I have been able to catch several tadpoles which are active from March-July. Both can only be found in ponds. It is unclear from the

pictures of both the tadpole and the frog what family they belong to, mostly, again, because the frog is not in season, so no one has been able to catch and examine one yet. Generally, the breeding season of frogs begins at the beginning of spring when the environment is beginning to warm. From then, the time it takes for tadpoles to emerge and metamorphose into their mature body form is variable. Depending on the species, it can take anywhere from a few months to pushing a year. The game gives two months from the time the tadpoles first appear to the time the frogs first appear, so it's not unreasonable that this is accurate. As temperatures cool, frogs enter a state of hibernation, hence their disappearance at the end of August. The same goes for the tadpoles. All in all, I'd say that they, for the most part were accurately portrayed in this video game as well. Obviously, as there is so much to do in this game, not every little detail is going to be accurate. It is however clear that a lot of time and research has gone into this aspect of the game. I'm looking forward to seeing what else I can catch.  

Sources/Further Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_snapping_turtle

https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Common-Snapping-Turtle
https://animals.mom.me/long-female-frog-keep-eggs-inside-her-body-10855.html