Critically Endangered
Black softshell turtle
Nilssonia nigricans
Black softshell turtle is a turtle in the family Trionychidae — Nilssonia nigricans, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
The black softshell turtle has an observably different appearance compared to that of a common turtle. This turtle, similar to all other softshell turtles, has a semi-flexible shell that is leathery, and does not obstruct movement as much as the average hardshell. The black softshell turtle also has a very distinct nose and face, with a tube like structure protruding from its nose resembling and functioning similar to a snorkel.
Range and habitat
Originally native to the lower Brahmaputra River, the only population ever reliably known consists of a number of the species in a man-made pond that is part of the Bayazid Bostami shrine at Chittagong, where they are dependent on humans for survival. To the locals and worshipers, the black softshell turtle is known as mazari ("Mazar inhabitant"). Specimens from this shrine were used in the first scientific description. In a 2014 survey by Poribesh Banchao Andolon, a Bangladeshi private organization it was found that the amount of oxygen dissolved in the pond water was 2.01 mg/L, whereas the favorable level is 5 mg/L.
Through conservation methods and protection of the species, some of these turtles can be found today throughout the wild, and scientists and environmental biologists are continuing to work hard to preserve this endangered species and their natural habitat.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
With an average clutch size of 20, this would allow for the survival of about one egg per two mating turtles. Visitors tend to feed a mixture of grains, fruits, and various meat products.
This had made it hard to determine the natural diet of the species. Even so, with the ability to consume the foods provided by the people, their diet is commonly compared to that of other species within the same genus.
In crisis
It was long believed to consist of inbred individuals of the Indian softshell turtle (N. Gangetica) or the Indian peacock softshell turtle (N. Hurum), but while it is a close relative of the latter, it is a distinct species. Previously declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2002, these turtles were found still to exist in a temple's pond called the Hayagriva Madhava Temple located in Assam, and in Kalyan Sagar lake in Tripura Sundari Temple in Udaipur, Tripura, India. The goal of the project is to eventually rear and release juveniles from these captive colonies to supplement depleted wild populations.
In 2018, Das et al. Had collected population sizes of N. Nigricans from 2006 to 2012. The population size had shown a gradual increase over time, indicating that the calculated area per turtle had decreased in accordance.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Black softshell turtle is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Black softshell turtle, Wikidata item Q201055. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
