Birthday of the Week: Peanut the Deformed Turtle Turns 41

This week the Missouri Department of Conservation hosted a birthday party for its beloved turtle Peanut. The old girl’s defining characteristic is her unusual figure-eight shaped shell, the result of getting stuck in a plastic six-pack ring when she was very young.

The turtle was discovered in the wild in 1993 with the plastic squeezing her shell into the hourglass shape. She lived for a time in St. Louis Zoo, and was moved to MDC's Powder Valley Nature Center when she was about nine years old. She gained fame as a poster child for anti-littering campaigns.

Photo credit: MDC

Besides the strange shape, Peanut has another unusual trait: her age. This species of turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) typically lives 20-30 years, with some individuals lasting until 40 in captivity; Peanut is reckoned to be 41.

In 2020 ultrasound revealed follicles on Peanut’s ovaries that had not yet fully developed into eggs. The trapped follicles weighed nearly 10% of Peanut’s total body mass and were crowding her digestive system, affecting her appetite. She underwent surgery to have the ovaries removed and, five years later, she still thrives.

Peanut’s birthday party included card making, litter awareness pledges, Peanut coloring books, and an Eat Like a Turtle activity. The nature center served birthday food fit for a deformed turtle: worms and crickets.

Peanut is a red-eared slider, also known as a red-eared terrapin. They’re native to the Midwest and northern Mexico, but because they are such a popular pet they’ve become invasive in some parts of the world. The IUCN lists the species among the 100 most invasive species.

Photo credit: John Miller / Missouri Department of Conservation