{"id":9560,"date":"2025-10-07T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/?p=9560"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:28:13","slug":"hicatee-awareness-month-species-spotlight-narrow-bridged-musk-turtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/hicatee-awareness-month-species-spotlight-narrow-bridged-musk-turtle\/","title":{"rendered":"Hicatee Awareness Month Species Spotlight: Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Throughout <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/celebrating-the-9th-annual-hicatee-awareness-month\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hicatee Awareness Month,<\/a><\/strong> every Tuesday, we\u2019ll be highlighting one of the Belizean turtles featured in the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Hicatee-and-friends-coloring-book-2025-Updated.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hicatee &amp; Friends coloring book,<\/a><\/strong> created by our partners, the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bfreebz.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Belize Foundation for Research &amp; Environmental Education,<\/a><\/strong> to raise awareness on the plight of Belize\u2019s native turtle species in need of conservation action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This week, meet the Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"819\" src=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-2-1024x819.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-2-1024x819.png 1024w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-2-300x240.png 300w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-2-768x614.png 768w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-2.png 1350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo by Parker Gibbons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle (<em>Claudius angustatus<\/em>) is known in some parts of Belize as the Loggerhead. Found in seasonal ponds, marshes, and flooded forests across Belize, Mexico, and northern Guatemala, this adaptable turtle feeds on everything from crayfish to ants and bees. Elsewhere, it carries the spooky moniker of the \u201cVampire Musk Turtle,\u201d a nod to the pronounced, sharp cusps on the edge of its upper beak\u2014a fitting nickname for the month of October. Sadly, it\u2019s listed as Near Threatened, reminding us of the importance of protecting its wetlands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"9564\" src=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Parker-Gibbons.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo by Parker Gibbons<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"9563\" src=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jay-Ballard-2-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jay-Ballard-2-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jay-Ballard-2-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jay-Ballard-2-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Jay-Ballard-2.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Photo by Jay Ballard<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Celebrate Hicatee Awareness Month with us by following us across our social platforms, following BFREE, and downloading the coloring book to learn more about Belize&#8217;s imperiled species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons has-custom-font-size has-medium-font-size is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-a89b3969 wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button has-custom-width wp-block-button__width-50 is-style-outline is-style-outline--2\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-white-color has-pale-cyan-blue-background-color has-text-color has-background has-link-color has-text-align-center wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Updated-Hicatee-and-friends-coloring-book-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Hicatee &amp; Friends Coloring Book<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"819\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-1-819x1024.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-9565\" srcset=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-1-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-1-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-1-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/5-1.png 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout Hicatee Awareness Month, every Tuesday, we\u2019ll be highlighting one of the Belizean turtles featured in the Hicatee &amp; Friends coloring book, created by our partners, the Belize Foundation for Research &amp; Environmental Education, to raise awareness on the plight of Belize\u2019s native turtle species in need of conservation action. This week, meet the Narrow-bridged [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":9561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hicatee Awareness Month Species Spotlight: Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle - Turtle Survival Alliance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/turtlesurvival.org\/hicatee-awareness-month-species-spotlight-narrow-bridged-musk-turtle\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hicatee Awareness Month Species Spotlight: Narrow-bridged Musk Turtle - Turtle Survival Alliance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Throughout Hicatee Awareness Month, every Tuesday, we\u2019ll be highlighting one of the Belizean turtles featured in the Hicatee &amp; Friends coloring book, created by our partners, the Belize Foundation for Research &amp; Environmental Education, to raise awareness on the plight of Belize\u2019s native turtle species in need of conservation action. 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