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PIG-NOSE TURTLE FACTS
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Description
The Pig-nose Turtle is a large freshwater turtle from top end of the Northern Territory. Its legs are like flippers with two claws. The shell is soft with pitted skin with no hard plates (scutes). The snout is like a short trunk, and looks a bit like a pig snout - hence the common name. It is grey or grey-brown with pale underside and pale patch behind eyes.
Other Names
Pitted-shelled Turtle
Size
60cm - 70cm
Environment
freshwater rivers, gorges and billabongs
Food
water plants such as ribbon weed, fruit that falls into water, insects, molluscs, crustaceans
Breeding
female lays 7-19 eggs on sandy bank. The young leave the nest in the wet season when floodwater or monsoon rain floods the nest
Range
top-end of Northern Territory of Australia and Papua New Guinea
Conservation Status
The conservation status in the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals is "endangered".
Classification
| Class: | Reptilia | | Order: | Testudines | | Family: | Carettochelydidae | | Genus: | Carettochelys | | Species: | insculpta | | Common Name: | Pig-nose Turtle |
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