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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2020-07-31
Page range: 394–400
Abstract views: 229
PDF downloaded: 5

First description of neonate Batagur trivittata (Testudines: Geoemydidae)

Wildlife Conservation Society - Myanmar Program, No. 12, Nanrattaw St., Kamayut Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Wildlife Conservation Society - Myanmar Program, No. 12, Nanrattaw St., Kamayut Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Wildlife Conservation Society - Myanmar Program, No. 12, Nanrattaw St., Kamayut Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Turtle Survival Alliance - Myanmar Program, No. 12, Nanrattaw St., Kamayut Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Turtle Survival Alliance - Turtle Survival Center, 1030 Jenkins Road, Suite D, Charleston, South Carolina 29407, U.S.A.
Global Wildlife Conservation, P.O. Box 129, Austin, Texas 78767, and Turtle Conservancy, P.O. Box 1289, Ojai, California, U.S.A.
Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center & Belle W. Baruch Institute of Coastal Ecology and Forest Science, Clemson University, P.O. Box 596, Georgetown, South Carolina 29442, U.S.A.
Testudines Geoemydidae Reptilia

Abstract

The Burmese Roofed Turtle (Batagur trivittata Duméril & Bibron, 1835) is a large (straight-line carapace length [CL] to 620 mm; Platt et al., 2019), aquatic, herbivorous turtle endemic to the major river systems of Myanmar (Smith 1931; TTWG 2017). Although historically widespread and apparently abundant, long-term population declines resulted from chronic egg collecting, subsistence harvesting of adults, and loss of critical nesting habitat (Platt et al. 2017a). By the late 1990s B. trivittata was considered a candidate for Extinct status (Bhupathy et al. 2000) until a living specimen purchased in a Chinese wildlife market came into the possession of an American turtle collector in the early 2000s (Platt et al. 2005; W.P. McCord, pers. comm.). Shortly thereafter, field surveys “rediscovered” two remnant populations in the Dokhtawady and upper Chindwin Rivers (Platt et al. 2005; Kuchling et al. 2006). Intense ex- and in-situ recovery efforts were launched shortly thereafter and continue today (Kuchling & Tint Lwin 2004; Çilingir et al. 2017).

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