Endangered
Cane turtle
Vijayachelys silvatica
The Cochin forest cane turtle, also known as Kavalai forest turtle, forest cane turtle or simply cane turtle, is a rare turtle from the Western Ghats of India.
Appearance
The plastron is sizeable, being nearly as large as the shell opening. It is connected to the carapace by ligaments and particularly in females there is little ossification between the shields of the shell. Its head is rather large, with a truncated snout as long as the sizeable orbit. The upper jaw is hooked, with small premaxillae.
The width of the plastron bridge is less than the length of the hind lobe. The longest median suture is between the abdominal scute, the shortest between the gular scute.
Described in 1912, its type locality is given as "Near Kavalai in the Cochin State Forests, inhabiting dense forest, at an elevation of about 1500 feet above sea level".
Range and habitat
The Cochin forest cane turtle, also known as Kavalai forest turtle, forest cane turtle or simply cane turtle, is a rare turtle from the Western Ghats of India. Only two specimens were found at that time, and no scientist saw this turtle for the next 70 years. It was rediscovered in 1982, and since then a number of specimens have been found and some studies have been conducted about its phylogeny and ecology.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Habits
According to the natives from whom Henderson obtained the type, the species inhabits short burrows underground and is indifferent about having water nearby (unlike some of its relatives, that are decidedly aquatic).
In crisis
The Cochin forest cane turtle is listed as endangered (EN B1+2c v2.3) by the IUCN and is listed in CITES Appendix II. It is rarely found in the pet trade.<refref name = praschagetal2006/> The Kadar tribe people occasionally hunt the turtles for bush meat. Additional threats are posed by deforestation and planned hydroelectric projects.
Cane turtle is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Cane turtle, Wikidata item Q1499407. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
