The National Zoo has found a painted river terrapin hatchling born to two of its adult turtles.
The hatchling was found when it was just a day or two old in a pool at the zoo’s Reptile Discovery Center in August, the zoo said this month.
It is the first hatchling of its species successfully bred and born at the zoo. The zoo acquired two females from the Fort Worth Zoo in Texas in 2015 and two males from the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, in 2017 for breeding purposes.
“The fact that our animals are breeding and producing healthy offspring is a good barometer that we’re meeting all their needs and doing things right. The fact that our adults have produced this beautiful hatchling — and that we could have more in the future — is especially exciting and rewarding,” assistant curator Matt Evans said.
The Smithsonian’s zoo said that since both males tried to breed with both females, they don’t know which terrapins are the hatchling’s parents.
Zookeepers are also working to figure out whether the tiny turtle is a male or a female, since its shell colors are similar to those of a male but the shape of its shell is more like a female’s.
The zoo is raising the turtle away from the pool where it was found, which at 3 feet is deep for a baby terrapin. Instead, it is being cared for in a habitat with water about 4 inches deep.
In addition, the zoo wants to keep the terrapin safe from a 12-foot-long tomistoma, a type of aquatic crocodilian that lives in the pool where the turtle was found. While the adult terrapins are too big for the tomistoma to eat, the hatchling would be an easy snack, the zoo said.
The painted river terrapin is native to parts Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand and is part of the same scientific superfamily as the diamondback terrapin, the state reptile of Maryland.
