Rare Endangered Turtle

While exploring the shores of the Thames River here in London, Gillian and I stumbled across a very unusual looking creature. A spotted turtle that was as flat as a pancake. I figured that it was probably not a native species to Ontario, and attempted to catch it. The little turtle proved to be quite the escape artist and slipped out of my hand and buried itself in the mud.

Once we got back to our apartment, I did some investigating online. It turns out that we had encountered a very rare turtle that is native to Ontario, but is a threatened species throughout the province. The turtle is known as a spiny softshell turtle and is usually found in slow-moving muddy rivers and soft-bottomed bays and ponds.

Spiny soft shell turtle

Categories: Adventures, Canada, Freshwater, Non-Fishing, Oddities, Thames River, Turtles, Wild-life

Sunday August 6th, 2006 @ 7:00 PM | Clive Mathias

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chris (21 hours, 26 minutes ago)

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I'm not 100% sure, but I think they get a little darker as they age. The biggest I've caught was about 14 inches long and still had these colours.

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christinA (1 day, 5 hours ago)

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