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Australian Wildlife

  Pig-nose Turtle (Carettochelys insculpta)





Pig-nose Turtle | Carettochelys insculpta photo
Pitted-shelled Turtle

Image by Dawson - Some rights reserved.    (view image details)







PIG-NOSE TURTLE FACTS

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

Habitat
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

distribution map showing range of Carettochelys insculpta in Australia

Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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