Meet the diamondback terrapin, a resident of NJ's brackish waterways

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The diamondback terrapin is the only North American turtle species that lives exclusively in brackish waters.

Thousands of terrapins thrive in New Jersey's Hackensack River, a habitat they could occupy only after a dam made the water brackish.

Motorists should be cautious during nesting season, from May to July, as female turtles cross roads to lay eggs.

China has its giant pandas and Australia its kangaroos. In New Jersey, the charismatic diamondback terrapin proudly inhabits its brackish waterways.

It is the only species of turtle in North America that exclusively lives in brackish waters, making the once freshwater basin of the Hackensack River an unlikely home.

“No one is going to look at a terrapin and not instantly love it,” said Drew McQuade, a senior biolo