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  Profile

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  In flight

Turtles

Pig-nosed Turtle

Carettochelys insculpta

• rare
• 5 km/h
• Endangered

The only freshwater turtle with flippers instead of feet. Its fleshy, nostril-heavy snout is genuinely pig-like.

Population

No precise global count; population declined more than 50% between 1981-2011 driven by egg/adult harvest, with illegal trafficking remaining severe (52,374 individuals seized in trade 2013-2020 per IUCN-cited sources)

Habitat

Tropical freshwater and estuarine environments — rivers, billabongs, lagoons, lakes, ribbonweed beds, and thermal/hydrothermal springs with sandy nesting banks

Fun fact

The pig-nosed turtle is the sole living member of the family Carettochelyidae and, despite living entirely in fresh water, has true flipper-like limbs almost identical to those of marine sea turtles.

Range

Restricted to northern Australia's Northern Territory (Daly, Victoria, and Alligator/East Alligator River drainages) and southern New Guinea (Fly, Strickland, Morehead, Lorentz/Digul river systems and Lake Jamur, spanning Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea)

Diet

Omnivorous; hatchlings and juveniles eat aquatic invertebrates (insect larvae, snails, shrimp), while adults favor fruits, flowers (notably fig), and leaves from riverbank/riparian vegetation along with mollusks and insects

Size

0.7 m

Lifespan

38 years