A “dangerous” turtle with a jaw robust sufficient to bite through bone has been found in Cumbria – and given an surprising title by vets caring for it.

Alligator snapping turtles are native to rivers and swamps in Florida, and are recognisable because of their armour-like shells, which give them a pre-historic, dinosaur-like look.

After quite a lot of sightings, the freshwater reptile was retrieved from beside Urswick Tarn by native parish councillor Denise Chamberlain – who put the animal in a purchasing basket and took it to a vet.

Dr Dom Moule informed Sky News he was “really surprised” when Ms Chamberlain introduced the turtle in.

He thought the mysterious reptile can be a loggerhead turtle or a terrapin. “I did not expect in the slightest for it to be an alligator snapping turtle,” he stated.

It was in all probability dumped by an unique pet proprietor who did not realise how tough it could be to take care of, Dr Moule added.

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Staff on the vets are at the moment unable to inform what gender the turtle is as it’s comparatively small, however that hasn’t stopped them from naming it.

“We’ve colloquially named them Fluffy,” Dr Moule stated. “In a strange way it does look quite cute, so we decided to give it a cute name.”

While there’s been no scarcity of individuals providing to take Fluffy in, it has been determined the reptile can be moved to a specialist wildlife centre in Cornwall.

Ms Chamberlain urged any unique pet house owners who really feel unable to care for his or her animals to contact businesses such because the RSPCA and hailed the workers at Wild Side Vets in Barrow as “heroes” for coping with the turtle.

Alligator snapping turtles are an invasive species which can “easily” bite through bone and “have been known” to sever human fingers, in line with the Britannica encyclopaedia.

The turtles are hunters who usually feed on fish, frogs, small mammals and even different turtles. They can develop to 100cm lengthy and weigh as much as 90kg.