Nile Soft-Shelled Turtle

The Nile Soft-Shelled Turtle (Trionyx triunguis) is an African freshwater turtle without scales. Their shell is flat, not domed, and they have a long tubular nose.

They live in rivers and lakes around the Lake Turkana and Lake Albert areas of Kenya, as well as the White Nile, downstream of Murchison Falls in Uganda.

They grow to 70 centimetres (27 inches). They are diurnal, which means that it is active during the day, although sometimes they bury themselves in mud.

They are mainly carnivorous, feeding on fish, snails, aquatic insects, crabs, amphibians (frogs and toads), reptiles (such as small lizards), and some vegetation from surrounding plants.

Females can lay 25-100 eggs. Their average life span is approximately 50 years.

They are critically endangered.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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