Residents of the Amur Region are actively discussing a strange animal that was found on the banks of the Amur. A photo depicting a sinister reptile appeared on a social network. People assumed it was a vulture turtle.
Most commentators assume that the animal was thrown away.
“Some of the sailors brought me from the voyage, gave it to my son, and she was so big. What to do? Of course, to Amur, let him swim. Of course, I would not have survived the winter,”writes Dzhambuli Tsirekidze.
“There are turtles in the Amur. Far Eastern soft-bodied, I saw it myself twice. If they survive in our conditions, then, I think, this specimen with a photo may be lucky. He will find the locals and join them. Many thanks to the author of the photo, it is unique,”writes Igor Kochinov.
Meanwhile, Yevgeny Churkin, a resident of Amur, had already posted a whole photo session with an outlandish reptile on his page on a social network. The man lives a little higher up the Amur, near the village of Leninskoye.
“We didn’t catch her, she didn’t understand where she came from, lived for a month, then, when Cupid got up, she disappeared, no one offended her or mocked her, just had a small photo session, and that was all,” he shared.
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There are also many comments and suggestions under his photo as to where this curiosity in the Amur came from.
“God forbid you stumble upon such a thing !!! And mordyakha, wow-x-x, already goosebumps !! - said Anna Pereguda.
A little later, the Blagoveshchensk news agency Port Amur published a video confirming the authenticity of the images from social networks. Amateur footage shows how residents of the coastal village of Leninskoye in the Jewish Autonomous Region are trying to drive a threatening giant tortoise into the water.
The man took the turtle by the shell and dragged it to the water so that it would swim away. At the same time, the animal opened its mouth threateningly and moved its tongue like a leech or a worm. They tried to push the outlandish reptile off the shore with their foot. In the end, she thought a little, crawled into the river and quickly swam away.
“When we saw it, we didn't even immediately realize that it was a turtle. She reminded us of a dinosaur, - said Anastasia Steshina, a resident of Leninsky. - Before, I have not seen such, however, like my friends. I talked with local fishermen, they think that this individual is not the only one, such animals, according to them, do not live alone. We photographed her, filmed her and released her. There were rumors that we had done some harm to her. As you can see in the footage, we did nothing to her and only pushed her to the water so that she would float away and not become someone's soup."
The reptile found in Amur is most likely a vulture (or a cayman very similar to it) turtle. The first species lives in tropical rivers and swamps in the southern United States. The second species lives in wide areas from Ecuador to southeastern Canada.
These reptiles are predatory. Having been attacked, the reptile spews a stream of a foul-smelling liquid from the cloaca. Such a turtle is scary not only for its formidable appearance. With a disturbed reptile, jokes are bad, and its strong jaws bite through a branch as thick as a human hand.
How the tropical animal ended up in the Amur, no one knows yet. Perhaps someone threw her out of the terrarium when the reptile got too big. It is possible that the Chinese started breeding this species on the other side of the river. This turtle has very tasty meat and eggs.
RIA Vostok-Media previously wrote about the appearance of freshwater crabs in the Amur basin. They fled farms in Chinese cities and towns and over time adapted well to the Far Eastern winters.
