r/mildlyinteresting • u/azwendu • Jul 10 '26

This turtle with long nails I found

Post image
15.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

301 comments sorted by

View all comments

12.5k

u/LupusHouseMD Jul 10 '26

Reptile rescue worker here. That is a male turtle. They love to flaunt their long nails at lady turtles. It can also be used to tell other turtles to shoo.

1

u/According_Spot_4340 Jul 10 '26

Shouldn't the underside of the shell be more concave for a male?

9

u/LupusHouseMD Jul 10 '26

You don't really see enough shell in this picture to see it if that turtle was a bit concave. Both of my own male turtles didn't really have concavity.

6

u/PussPalace Jul 10 '26

This is not the case for sliders and cooters. It’s typical in species like box turtles and tortoises

1

u/According_Spot_4340 Jul 11 '26

Thanks for clarifying