r/Awwducational • u/IdyllicSafeguard • Sep 03 '24
Verified The Chinese softshell turtle uses its tubelike nostrils to "snorkel" while staying submerged beneath the water. Most turtles urinate through their cloacas, but to avoid losing water, the Chinese softshell can secrete urea from its mouth — essentially peeing via its mouth.
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u/IdyllicSafeguard Sep 03 '24
Sources:
Evidence for the massive scale of turtle farming in China by Shi Haitao, et al.
AGMRC - Turtle Farming in the U.S.
Europol - Illegal Turtle Farm Bust
iNaturalist - Softshell Turtles
Animal Diversity Web - Trionychidae
Animal Diversity Web - Carettochelyidae
Olive Ridley Project - Salt Glands in Sea Turtles
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u/IdyllicSafeguard Sep 03 '24
Urinating through the cloaca involves a significant amount of water loss. To replenish this loss, a turtle must drink more water — this poses a problem for a turtle living in brackish (somewhat salty) water, since it would intake too much salt with the water it drinks.
The Chinese softshell gets around this by opening its jaws, wiggling its tongue, and excreting the urea through its mouth — which involves much less water loss. Only 6% of the urea produced by this turtle comes out of its hind end. As a result, it can live in brackish water.
Sea turtles are adapted to tolerate even saltier water. Instead of "mouth peeing", they have specialised salt glands in the corner of each eye. When they drink salty water, the salt enters their bloodstream and is transported to these glands, where it is excreted as a very concentrated salty solution.
The softshell turtle's carapace lacks the horny scutes that form the armour-like shell of other turtles. Instead, most of its "shell" is soft like leather and pliable. Only in the centre of its back is there a hard layer of solid bone, which resembles a typical turtle shell.
The carapace of this turtle only reaches around 30 centimetres (12 inches) in length and females are usually the larger sex.
This turtle's genus name is Pelodiscus; from the Greek pelos, meaning "mud/mire" and the Latin discus or disk/disc, meaning simply a "disk-shaped object".
It is an ambush predator that buries itself beneath mud or sand and shoots its head up to engulf prey. Eating fish, crustaceans, molluscs, and insects.
Some populations can excrete a nasty-smelling substance from pores at the front of their shells to deter predators.
The Chinese softshell turtle is actually a somewhat popular pet. It makes for a very active companion, often zooming around its tank. However, it is also known to be aggressive to tank mates and human fingers. One can apparently be bought for between $50 and $150.
A 2007 study on turtle farms in China received survey results from 684 out of the 1,449 registered farms in the country. These farms sold 128 million turtles every year (amounting to a total weight of about 93,000 tons). The Chinese softshell turtle accounted for 97% of reported sales. This is data from less than half the farms in the country, so the figure is likely to be twice as high.
The Chinese softshell turtle is considered a 'vulnerable' species by the IUCN (as of the year 2000, so an update is needed). Its main threat, despite intensive breeding and farming, is overharvesting and exploitation of its wild populations.
You can read more about this snorkelling, squishy-shelled, mouth-peeing turtle on my website here!