|
|
|
|
Range: South America Habitat: Slow Moving Streams and Rivers Natural Diet: Strictly carnivorous Diet at Rain Forest: Fish. Size: 12-18" Carapace, very large aquatic turtle RainForest Facts: One of the most unusually shaped of all aquatic turtles, the Mata Mata is shaped much like fallen leaves and vegetation. This allows the turtle the ability to hide amongst the rotting vegetation of a slow moving or stagnant bodies of water. A sit and wait predator the Mata Mata has fooled many a fish into thinking it is nothing but a clump of rotting leaves! Status in Wild: Numbers are stable in parts of range while declining rapidly in areas of human encroachment. |
|
|
