Irwin's turtle

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Irwin's turtle
Irwin's turtle (2261030419) .jpg

Irwin's tortoise ( Elseya irwini )

Systematics
Order : Turtles (Testudinata)
Subordination : Turn-Neck Turtles (Pleurodira)
Family : Snake neck turtles (Chelidae)
Subfamily : Chelodininae
Genre : Australian snapping turtles ( Elseya )
Type : Irwin's turtle
Scientific name
Elseya Irwini
Cann , 1997
Distribution area (yellow) of Irwin's tortoise in northeast Australia

Irwin's turtle ( Elseya irwini ; English Irwin's turtle) is one of six species from the genus Elseya in the family of the snake-necked turtle . It can be read on various occasions that Irwin's turtle was named after Bob Irwin, but in the first description under Etymology , Cann explicitly refers to Steve Irwin .

description

Irwin's turtle is a large, massive, freshwater turtle with a very broad and long head. The carapace length of the holotype , an adult female, was 32.2 cm. Irwin's tortoise differs from the other species of the genus by the fact that the females have a bright head with yellowish armor on the top of the head. This horny plate does not extend over the sides of the head. There are two small, white barbels under the chin.

The top of Irwin's tortoise is brown to dark brown, sometimes with scattered darker spots, the underside is grayish with a few dark spots. The head is brown and without stripes. The lower half of the head is whitish or spotted white, the spots can extend over the sides and in females over the entire head. In females, the head can be completely white or yellow.

Way of life

Irwin's turtle can breathe outside and underwater through its cesspool. In captivity, adults eat meat, fish and bananas, in their natural habitat they may be omnivorous , but all we know is that they take meat from fish bait. In the excretions of the holotype, up to 1 cm in size, partially intact snails and parts of plant stems were found.

discovery

In 1990 Steve Irwin and his father Bob Irwin, owners of Reptile & Fauna Park in Queensland, camped on the banks of the Burdekin River. There they noticed that from time to time white-headed turtles appeared on the surface of the water or sunbathed on protruding rocks. While fishing with a meat-tipped bait, they caught a large female and dragged her onto the bank. The specimen was filmed, photographed and then reset. The material obtained was sent to John Cann with a request for identification. In 1993, after two previous attempts, Cann collected a specimen while diving in the Burdekin River, about 18 km upstream from Ayr . Three more attempts to catch an animal failed. Up until these sightings nothing was published about the species and no males were sighted.

Threat / Endangerment / Spread

The following paragraph is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

The species only lives in the Broken Bowen River System and the Burdekin River . Elseya irwini is considered to be an endangered species because the Urannah Dam is being used to turn the Urannah Creek into a reservoir, which threatens the turtle's habitat. The Queensland government is against the construction of the dam and said on the subject: "There are no current plans to build the Urannah Dam."

The ecologist Ivan Lawler from James Cook University’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences estimates that only 4,000 to 5,000 wild specimens remain. The researchers from the university caught 82 turtles, 5 of them juveniles. This may help secure the future of the species. However, when the older generation dies, there may not be enough young to keep the population constant.

Taxonomy

Elseya irwini is considered a separate species, although it was originally (1996, 1998, 2006) assigned to the Elseya dentata species complex . Later, in 2007, the Elseya species from the Johnston River was described as a separate species Elseya stirlingi . However, the method of writing this, an untested electronic newsletter , has been controversial. 2010 this description was discarded and Elseya stirlingi as nouns dubium with Elseya irwini synonymised where Elseya irwini earlier than the Johnstone River was limited to the south Burdekin River catchment. Although Elseya stirlingi was considered a synonym, it was still viewed as a separate taxon (Georges and Thomson, 2010), a view that was later supported by further genetic research.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Elseya irwini in The Reptile Database
  2. ↑ a b c d John Cann (1997): Irwin's turtle, Elseya irwini sp. nov. In: Monitor: Journal of the Victorian Herpetological Society 9 (1), pp. 36-40. ( Online )
  3. ↑ Harold Cogger: Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia. 2019, CSIRO Publishing, ISBN 978-1486309696 , p. 246.
  4. ↑ Alastair Freeman, Carla Eisemberg, Henry Stoetzel (2018): Habitat use and movements in an upland population of Johnstone River snapping turtles, Elseya irwini. In: Herpetological Conservation and Biology 13, pp. 464-472. ( Online )

Web links

Commons : Irwin's Turtle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files