Nesting biology and ecology of the soft shell Nile turtle (Trionyx triunguis) in the Seyhan River

This study was conducted in 10 Trionyx triunguis nests situated in the dunes of the Seyhan River during the 2019 breeding season. These nests transferred to the same nest specifications (depth and diameter) in Akyatan Beach against mammal damage. Average clutch sizes in moved nests are 37 eggs, nest depth 43.4 cm and 17.0 cm nest diameter. The average diameter of the eggs is 33.6 mm and the weight is 21.5 g. The nests differed significantly in terms of egg diameter and weight. Nest depth was positively correlated with the total number of eggs. The egg diameter and weight demonstrated a strong positive correlation. Totally, 366 eggs were counted in 10 nests. The 7.65% of these eggs hatched, 0.82% of the remaining eggs were not fertilized, 91.53% (82.79% early, 6.28% middle and 2.46% late stage) remained in the embryonic stage. The 28 hatchlings hatched from the eggs were transported to Seyhan River. The average of carapace length, carapace width, plastron length and plastron width of the hatchlings whose morphometric measurements are respectively taken as 43.15 mm, 42.19 mm, 33.61 mm and 33.8 mm. Significant differences were detected in 7 of 10 morphological characters of the hatchlings that came out of two nests. Nest diameter showed a strong positive correlation with the hatchlings' carapace length, carapace width, plastron length, plastron width, carapace height, head width, and hatchlings weight. When the hatchlings of T. triunguis in this study and the Dalyan population were compared in terms of 10 morphological characters, significant differences were found in 7 of them.