Critically Endangered
McCord's box turtle
Cuora mccordi
McCord's box turtle is a turtle in the family Geoemydidae — Cuora mccordi, recorded as Critically Endangered.
Appearance
McCord's box turtle is a small box turtle characterized by a highly domed carapace and a hinged plastron that allows the shell to close completely. The carapace typically ranges from dark brown to chestnut in coloration, while the plastron is yellow and often marked with darker patterns. The head is typically yellow with darker stripes extending along the sides of the face and neck.
Adults typically reach a straight carapace length of approximately 14–18 centimeters.
The species was first described in 1988 from specimens obtained through the wildlife trade, that resulted in prolonged uncertainty regarding its natural distribution.
Range and habitat
McCord's box turtle is endemic to the central Guangxi province in China. While they are thought to be an aquatic species, inhabiting small streams and wetlands, they also spend time on land where they feed and mate. The species is native to the southern Chinese province of Guangxi.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Its diet includes small aquatic organisms and invertebrates, as well as plant material.
In crisis
McCord's box turtle is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and is considered a protected species under Chinese legislation and CITES. It is regarded as a rare turtle species in Asia, having experienced substantial population declines as a result of intensive collection for international pet trade and ongoing habitat degradation. The species has not been reliably documented in the wild in recent years, and the limited availability of field data has led some researchers to suggest it may be functionally extinct in its natural environment.
Despite this, the species continues to survive in captive populations such as zoos and breeding facilities, that are considered essential for conservation and potential future recovery efforts.
McCord's box 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 McCord's box turtle, Wikidata item Q301454. 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.
