Do you know about a turtle called “yellow-spotted river turtle”? (Yellow spotted side neck turtle). Let me tell you about this turtle. This type of turtle is brown color on the whole body, but it has yellow spots on the head. That is characteristic of my turtle. Also my turtle has a long neck.  All turtles use the shell to protect and help the turtles to live. Female and male have different size. The males are smaller than females, so the males always can grow up to 45 cm long and weight up to 8 kg. But the females are twice the size of a male.

 

Yellow-spotted side-neck turtles can hide on the bank or a basking log, making sure it is safe, so when a flood comes, it cannot take them to another place or other river, because my turtle likes to live in calm water.  Also they love the sun with a small group on the tree-trunk. They are the largest turtles always found in the big river, or during the flood season. Like the Amazon River and Orinoco River.  Yellow-spotted side-neck was in the water most time; it barely comes out of the water to get warm.

 

They are a lot same turtles as my turtles are live through in the South America Rivers. Their population is growing, getting much bigger and bigger. Because the turtles are reptiles, so they lay eggs. That’s why the number of turtles is growing all the time. Guess what, my turtle can live up to seventy years old. That is awesome!

 

Yellow-spotted side neck turtles can be herbivorous, because they eat the vegetable and maybe some fruits most time. But they also eat the insects, bugs, and flies. They used the tongue in the mouth; same as frog does.

The predators always are carnivores. The turtle will hide on the same color ground as them, so that way it will be safe. Or, they can come out water and come up on the basking tree trunk.  Also, people will catch them.  

 

After I wrote about my animal, I know more about reptiles now. So, I can easily remember that the turtles are a reptile. And they lay eggs like a reptile.

 

Author: Ting Ting Z.

Published: 06/2009

 

http://www.zoo.org/factsheets/yellowside_turtle/sideTurtle.html

http://www.arkive.org/yellow-headed-sideneck-turtle/podocnemis-unifilis/info.html

The Encyclopedia of Animal A Complete Visual Guide. Pg 359 the picture about Podocnemis unifilis’ family.