A spiny turtle at Taipei Zoo has produced offspring after three years of breeding efforts by conservationists, the zoo said on Friday.
The zoo has four of the endangered turtles — two females and two males — and one of the females had laid several eggs over the past three years, but none of them had hatched before, the zoo said.
However, on Aug. 20 a hatchling emerged from its egg following about 100 days of incubation, measuring 5cm and weighing 20g.
Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo
When a spiny turtle’s shell grows and hardens it resembles the sun with rays of light spreading out from the shell’s edges, which is why the reptile is named “sun turtle” (太陽龜) in Chinese, the zoo said.
As the turtle ages, it loses the spiky edges on its shell, and more closely resembles a common box turtle, the zoo said.
Spiny turtles tend to be shy and freeze in place if there is movement nearby, so even at the zoo, the turtles wait until keepers have left their enclosure before venturing out for their food.
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