If you ask any pet owner, they’ll tell you that their companion–be it dog, cat, hamster, or fish–has a personality of its own. Sometimes, though, it’s harder to see a personality in wildlife. People express themselves through their hair and clothing. Well, one little turtle has taken a page out of that book–he has a green mohawk!
The Mary River Turtle
The green-mohawked turtle is the Mary River Turtle. And it’s more than his rocking hairstyle that’s of interest. This turtle is just over 15 ½ inches (40 cm), has two fleshy nubs protruding from its chin like facial hair, and breathes through its cloaca. A cloaca is an organ in reptiles that functions as both the anus and the genitals–but not usually the airways. However, the Mary River Turtle has an unexpected benefit. Due to specialized organs in the cloaca, the Mary River Turtle draws oxygen from the water around it. As a result, it can stay underwater for up to three days. The hair isn’t entirely what it seems either. The mohawk is made of many strands of algae, which also grows along their shells. (1, 2, 3)
The EDGE For The Mary River Turtle
The Zoological Society of London started the EDGE lists back in 2007. EDGE is an acronym for Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered. The list ranks a variety of animals–amphibians, birds, corals, mammals, reptiles, and sharks and rays–from 1-100. The ranking is used to guide organizations on “conservation priorities.” The score is factored by looking at their risk of extinction and how unique they are on an evolutionary scale. The Mary River Turtle ranks #30 for reptiles. However, its conservation attention, according to the EDGE site, is “low.” (1, 4)
Why The Turtle Matters
Rikki Gumbs, the coordinator for reptiles on the EDGE, bemoans this lack of attention. “Reptiles often receive the short end of the stick in conservation terms . . .it is vital we do our utmost to save these unique and too often overlooked animals,” he says. “Many Edge reptiles are the sole survivors of ancient lineages, whose branches of the tree of life stretch back to the age of the dinosaurs. If we lose these species there will be nothing like them left on Earth.” He is also one of the co-authors of “Tetrapods on the EDGE: Overcoming data limitations to identify phylogenetic conservation priorities,” a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, on April 11th, 2018. The aim of the paper is to explain how the EDGE coordinators arrive at their ranking numbers. (1, 5)
Pet Turtle
Part of the reason for the Mary River Turtle’s inclusion on the EDGE list could be how great they are. Unlike some other species of turtle, the Mary River Turtle is a very gentle creature. Because of this, the Mary River Turtle was often a victim of pet collectors, who raided their nests in the 1960s and ’70s. “In fact,” according to Business Insider, “Mary River turtles were kept as pets in Australia for over 20 years before they were formally described as a new species.” (1, 3)
