Animals

Up Close And Personal With A Pallid Spiny Softshell Turtle

While I was on the bridge over the lower spillway steps at White Rock Lake, I found a large Texas spiny softshell turtle that had come up an incline and onto the bridge, then got itself stuck under the ironwork and could neither go forward nor backward. I took some photos, then with the help of a jogger, we dislodged the turtle and it ran down the incline and back in the water. This was a close-up I took of its head.
Pallid Spiny Softshell (Apalone spinifera ssp. pallida)

white rock lakedallas texasaquaticwater turtleturtlebridge over the lower spillway stepsclose upreptilePallid Spiny Softshellapalone spinifera ssp. pallida