Spiny Softshell Turtle

The spiny soft shell turtle lives all around the US and parts of mexico and canada. Its habitat is rivers and lakes with rocky bottoms and lots of small animals. The reason it needs a lot of small animals to live near it, is so it can find food. It has a soft shell, so it can’t really go hunting. It’s diet consists of water insects, crayfish, and other small fish. Its way of finding food is burying its head underwater and suddenly catching their prey. The soft shelled turtle is quite susceptible to predators since it doesn’t have a hard shell to protect itself. So its only way to defend itself is to bury themselves in mud. You may have also noticed the color of its shell is a brown grey color, similar to the muddy rocks in its habitat, camouflage is another way it tries to stay safe. The animal is actually quite small at about one and half feet. It has a long lifespan of 50 years in the wild and can mate when they reach the age of 10. The spiny softshell turtle is facing a threat of being endangered due to habitat loss in Canada. An interesting thing about these turtles is, some that live in colder habitats hibernate, which is basically conserving energy and sleeping most of the time. For wild Suzhou I'm palm tree and thank you for listening.