Northern Snake-Neck Turtle
Chelodina oblonga
Expert
Identification
Carapace: The carapace is typically brown and somewhat elongated with the broadest portion of the shell being just past the middle. The scutes have small creases or wrinkles and are either brown or black in color. The posterior edge of the carapace is most often smooth but can sometimes be slightly serrated. The underside of the carapacial rim is light brown to yellow. Plastron: The front of the plastron is wide and tapers to a rounded edge while the rear tapers down with a deep notch. The plastron is smaller than the carapace and the bridges are narrow. Both the plastron and the bridges are yellow and can sometimes have dark seams. Head: The head is large, wide and long and covered with irregularly shaped scales with the nose staying within the curvature of the head. The top jaw has neither cusp nor notch; the bottom jaw is flat with small, multiple chin barbels. The neck is thick and very long (more than 75% of the length of the carapace) and is covered with a variety of tubercles along its length. The head and neck are usually gray, brown or olive in color with the underside usually being a lighter variant of the top and can sometimes be white. Additional: The limbs and tail are usually a mild gray. Males have a much longer and thicker tail than females and possess several large, transverse scales on the front of the front legs. Both males and females may attain a SCL of between 14" and 16 inches.
Range
The Northern Snake-Neck Turtle has a broad distribution in tropical northern Australia and southern New Guinea, ranging from the Cape York Peninsula west to the Kimberley District of Western Australia. Its preferred habitats are seasonal wetlands on the coastal floodplains and adjacent hinterlands.
Diet
The Northern Snake-Neck Turtle is exclusively carnivorous, feeding on fish, tadpoles, hatchling turtles, amphibians, crustaceans, worms, mollusks, snails, and insects. They actively search for food and thrust their long neck out after prey. As a snake-necked strike and gape predator, they also hide under rocks and logs or bury themselves in mud to ambush fish, amphibians, and invertebrates. In captivity, variety is the key to success. Commercial foods such as Mazuri Aquatic Turtle Diet, AquaMax 500, and ReptoMin are available. Live food should be provided routinely, including prawns and fish. Bloodworms, blackworms, earthworms, snails, crickets, and other insects are also encouraged. Food should be frozen for storage and thawed completely before feeding.
Notes
The Northern Snake-Neck Turtle is not an aggressive species. Individuals tend to flail to escape rather than bite. Due to their size — not just carapace length but also the neck, which can exceed 75% of the carapace length — these turtles can be challenging to house, hence their Expert difficulty rating. Adults require aquariums no smaller than 150–200 gallons for a single turtle; each additional turtle requires an increase of half that volume. Stock tanks also make great alternatives to glass or acrylic aquariums. As this species is not a common basker, shell issues can sometimes develop and require treatment.
This species can be found not only in fresh water but also in brackish water due to the proximity of the southern New Guinea coast and nearby offshore islands. These habitats undergo extensive flooding during the tropical wet season, with declining water levels during the dry season; many waterholes dry completely. The species survives the dry season by migrating to permanent water or estivating under the mud of dried waterholes.
Its habit of nesting underwater makes it unique among all turtles. Nesting commences in the wet season (February) and is mostly complete by July, though gravid females can be found as late as September. Eggs are laid in holes dug in mud under shallow water. Embryonic development remains arrested while the nest is flooded, then resumes when floodwaters recede and the ground dries — hatchling emergence coincides with the following wet season's rainfall. Females may lay between 10 and 16 elongated eggs per clutch.
The Northern Snake-Neck Turtle is a highly prized food source among local Aboriginal people and has been sustainably harvested for traditional consumption for many millennia. It remains common across all major river systems in northern Australia and southern New Guinea, though it faces some threat from pig predation.
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