Critically Endangered
Malaysian giant turtle
Orlitia borneensis
Malaysian giant turtle is a turtle in the family Geoemydidae — Orlitia borneensis, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei.
Appearance
This species has a dark brown or black carapace that is smooth and oval in shape and a pale yellow-brown to off white plastron. The head is wedge shaped, with strong jaws and a slightly projecting snout, and the heads of adults are uniformly colored dark brown to black whereas juveniles are dark mottled with a pale line extending from the mouth to the back of the head.
The Malaysian giant turtle is the largest freshwater turtle in Southeast Asia, reaching a maximum length of 80 cm (31 inches) and a maximum weight of up to 50 kg (110 pounds).
Range and habitat
The Malaysian giant turtle inhabits large lakes, swamps, and slow-flowing rivers within the countries it resides in. The Malaysian giant turtle or also known as the Bornean river turtle is a freshwater species of turtle in the family Bataguridae. It is found in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
The Malaysian giant turtle is Critically Endangered on the IUCN database and despite the rarity of the turtle it is not protected in Malaysia. Populations of the Malaysian giant turtle suffer from poaching for the Chinese medicinal trade as the organs, bile, and bones are said to be cures for various diseases like smallpox and fevers. Habitat destruction for palm oil plantations have also contributed to its Critically Endangered IUCN status.
Even so, only 82% of indigenous individuals agree that freshwater turtles should not be captured and should be released when they are captured.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Malaysian giant turtle is Critically 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 Malaysian giant turtle, Wikidata item Q2716594. 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.
