The Indian Mud or Flap-Shell Turtle

Max weight 5.2 kg.

Length females upto 35 cm.

Males 10 cm less

One of the benefits of having a notoriety as a snake handler is that people bring you all sorts of interesting wild animals to inspect! I’ve acquired scorpions, baby civet cats, many different kinds of reptile eggs, snakes, and even a brahminy kite. The kite had fallen in a well and I fed it meat during the week it recuperated its strength with me. During that time it plastered our bathroom with bird droppings and I can tell you my mother wasn’t pleased at all!

Monsoons are a time when I’m ‘gifted’ with reptiles and almost every year I get atleast one or two turtles. Sometimes it’s the common Indian Pond Terrapin (which I don’t care much for since it always defecates a foul smelling liquidy substance when picked up!). Equally common though is the Indian Mud Turtle, which I much prefer to the terrapin.

The Mud Turtle is a comical looking creature with a very long neck and large yellow rimmed black eyes. When threated it usually withdrawls its neck and all four legs back into its shell. Skin flaps on the plastron (the underside of the turtle) neatly cover the hindlimbs and the tail. The skin flaps distinguish it from other species of Indian freshwater turtles. Unlike terrapins Mud Turtles have fully webbed digits. They also have a rubbery shell: which I cannot imagine being of much help to the turtle in the event of a strong jawed animal chewing on it. Terrapins on the other hand, have a shell like a rock.

While Mud Turtles are strong swimmers they still burrow a lot. During the drier seasons they burrow into dried river beds and can go enormous periods without food     (A captive specimen on record survived two years without a morsel!). Mud Turtles are foodies taking almost everything from water plants to frogs, fish, crustaceans and snails.

I’ve had mud turtles with me on a number of occasions. Some were given to me very small (the size of a small biscuit). Others were bigger than a dinner plate. And while I learnt quite a few things just by keeping them I got to know a few more things when I consulted J.C. Daniels book (Amphibians and Reptiles of India) to write this article.

For one thing there are two races of Mud turtle. The Indo-Gangetic Mud turtle has yellow spots on its head. The one I have photographed is the Peninsular Mud Turtle (with black streaks on its head).

Mud turtles will lay clutches of several eggs. The eggs hatch in the rainy season. Like most animals the mother turtle times her eggs to hatch in the monsoons when there is plenty of food to go around!