“We are very excited about our new resident here in the state," Hedrick said. "The last time a new turtle was found in Tennessee was in 1986 when threatened bog turtles were discovered in Northeast Tennessee."

When contacted about the zoo’s discovery, Dr. A. Floyd Scott of the Department of Biology at Austin Peay University said, “David Hedrick and Rick Jackson’s discovery of the Gulf Coast spiny softshell turtle is significant because it adds a new taxon to the vertebrate fauna of Bradley County and, more importantly, to the state of Tennessee. Their find, coupled with a preserved specimen [recently confirmed as the Gulf Coast spiny softshell] in the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences that was collected in 1974 from the Conasauga River in eastern Bradley County, suggest there is an established population there that has been overlooked until now."

The spotting of this subspecies is especially momentous because softshelled turtles are an extremely wary aquatic species that disappear at the first sign of danger. They spend a great deal of time buried in the stream bottom, waiting to ambush prey. Their necks are long, and they have tiny, pig-like noses that allow them to stretch up to the surface and breathe while the rest of their body remains buried in the sand and mud.