Typically, the mata mata turtle is found in the basins of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers in South America. As such, this means that its habitat extends across parts of Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Brazil. Further north, it can be seen in captivity in a number of places across the United States – such as at the aforementioned Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons / J. Patrick Fischer | CC BY-SA 3.0