Diamondback Terrapin

Fascinating facts about the Diamondback Terrapin

• Males top out at about 13 cm (5 in) carapace length while females average 19 cm (7½ in) and can exceed 23 cm (9 in), 300 g (11 oz) for males versus 500 g (18 oz) for females, with the biggest females reaching 1 kg (35 oz). This extreme size gap, the greatest among North American turtles, lets females crush hard-shelled prey.
• Terrapins thrive where fresh and salty water meet because they can live in full-strength seawater and their skin is largely impermeable to salt. They sport lachrymal salt glands that excrete excess salt when dehydrated, can taste water salinity, and even sip rainwater that floats on the surface after a storm. These tricks let them stay hydrated without leaving their brackish marsh homes.
• Females lay 4-22 eggs per clutch, nesting in sand dunes each summer; they may produce up to three clutches a year in the wild and five in captivity. Males mature at 2-3 years (≈115 mm), females need 6-7 years (≈170 mm), longer in northern populations, and temperature during incubation decides hatchling sex.
• Human gear kills thousands each year: New Jersey crab traps drown 14,000-15,000 terrapins annually, while abandoned "ghost" traps keep killing more. Raccoons smash 92-100 % of nests at Jamaica Bay each summer, wiping out entire clutches. Historic over-harvesting once saw 89,150 lb taken in a single year, and today over 75 % of their salt-marsh habitat has been destroyed or altered, leaving the species vulnerable across its range.
• In captivity diamondback terrapins can live up to 40 years, but field studies suggest wild individuals usually reach only about 25 years.

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.

• Wikipedia

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