Yellow-headed turtle

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Yellow-headed turtle
young yellow-headed turtle at Melbourne Zoo

young yellow-headed turtle at Melbourne Zoo

Systematics
Order : Turtles (Testudinata)
Subordination : Halsberger tortoises (Cryptodira)
Family : Tortoises (Testudinidae)
Subfamily : Testudininae
Genre : Asiatic tortoises ( Indotestudo )
Type : Yellow-headed turtle
Scientific name
Indotestudo elongata
( Blyth , 1853)

The yellow-headed tortoise ( Indotestudo elongata ) is one of the three species of Asiatic tortoises that belong to the tortoise family . It is distributed in southeast Asia and extends from Nepal to Malaysia. It is the largest range of the Asiatic tortoises. The species is believed to be the most common turtle species found in the Indo-Malaysian area.

Appearance

The yellow-headed turtle is a medium to large species of tortoise. Their carapace is up to 33 centimeters long. Adult specimens weigh an average of 3.5 kilograms. The armor of the back is rather elongated and narrow in this species. The color of the back armor is yellow or yellow-greenish. It has a number of black and irregular spots. There are large pointed scales on the forelegs that overlap each other. The hind legs, on the other hand, are covered with large, flat scales. The tail ends in a horn nail.

The sexes can be differentiated by the fact that females usually stay a little smaller. Females also have a slightly more rounded shape; their armor is slightly wider than that of the males. Males also have a longer and thicker tail and a concave belly armor. In females, however, the plastron is completely flat. The toenails of females are also significantly longer on the front extremities than in males and more curved.

Distribution area and way of life

Yellow-headed turtles are found in both southern Nepal and northern India. Its distribution area also extends from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, the Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan to the north of Malaysia.

The yellow-headed turtle's habitat are forest regions in hilly to mountainous areas, which are usually rich in precipitation. But it also occurs in dry regions. They are particularly common in sal and teak forests . They can be found both in cooler regions with temperatures around 12 degrees and in extremely hot regions. The yellow-headed tortoise has developed a special technique to withstand very high temperatures. She salivates her head and neck as well as the front feet and cools her body in this way. As a result, it is able to withstand ambient temperatures of up to 48 degrees Celsius.

Yellow-headed tortoises eat omnivorous and eat parts of plants, fruits, mushrooms and especially nudibranchs .

A discoloration of the face during the mating season is unusual. In both sexes, the skin around the eyes and around the nostrils then turns pink. However, this phenomenon also occurs in the closely related Travancore tortoise . The animals are relatively aggressive during the mating season. After mating, the females lay their clutches, which usually contain between two and six eggs. The time it takes for young animals to hatch from these eggs depends on the ambient temperature and the relative humidity. It is between 108 and 180 days.

Duration

Exact population figures are not available for the large distribution area. However, like most other turtle species, habitat loss is a threat. The yellow-headed turtle is also widely traded as food. For example, it is the most common species of turtle that is exported from Vietnam to China and sold there for consumption. Trade takes place even though the species is on the CITES Appendix II list.

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rogner, p. 86
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ Rogner, p. 85 f.
  4. ↑ Das, p. 63.
  5. ↑ [2]
  6. ↑ [3]

literature

  • Indraneil Das: The turtles of the Indian subcontinent , Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-930612-35-6
  • Manfred Rogner: Tortoises - biology, keeping, reproduction , Eugen Ulmer KG, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-8001-5440-1

Web links