My Cousin: The Soft Shell

Here's a soft shell variety of terrapin. Just look at this guy. He seems so flat and floppy. These turtles look like big leathery pancakes. The adults are brownish-green or tan with blotches on their skin. Their shells are covered with skin, and are soft around the edges. Their noses are long and round. When they swim, they stay underwater and stick their nose up to breathe, like a snorkel. Their feet are webbed and their necks are quite long.



Softshell turtles can be very aggressive, and they sometimes bite each other and turtles of other species spontaneously or when feeding. Turtles with soft shells tend to be more aggressive than their more protected relatives. Florida softshell turtles are found on the coastal plains south of Mobile Bay, Alabama, and Charleston, South Carolina, including all of Florida except the Keys. Their preferred habitat is slow-moving bodies of fresh water with mud or sand bottoms. They spend much of their time buried in the soft bottom with only their head exposed. Softshell turtles are primarily carnivorous, feeding on aquatic insects, crustaceans, mollusks, fish, waterfowl and amphibians.

Flapjacks, anyone?