Critically Endangered
Red-crowned roofed turtle
Batagur kachuga
The red-crowned roofed turtle or Bengal roof turtle is a freshwater turtle endemic to South Asia.
Appearance
It can weigh up to 25 kilograms (55 lb) and have shells as long as 56 centimeters (22 in). At the end of the rainy season, the heads and necks of male turtles develop a brilliant courtship coloration of red, yellow, white, and blue, with 6 distinctive bright red stripes on top of the head. The head is moderate size with an obtuse and moderately prominent snout.
Males reach only half the length of females. Females can grow to a shell length of 56 cm (22 in) and weigh 25 kilograms (55 lb), but males are considerably smaller.
Range and habitat
This reptile was historically widespread in Central Nepal, NE India, Bangladesh, primarily in deep flowing freshwater rivers with terrestrial nest sites in the watershed of the Ganges River and probably NW Burma. India." The National Chambal Sanctuary portion of the Chambal River has received moderate protection since 1979 as India's only protected riverine habitat. It is believed to be one of the last viable habitats for this species, though even here, B. Kachuga are rare.
Since 2006, the Chambal River Sanctuary Program of Turtle Survival Alliance- India has implemented projects to protect wild nests, collect and hatch wild eggs in hatchery conditions, raise hatchlings to 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) at about 4 years age, conduct survival and migration studies of tagged and released hatchlings and conduct surveys over 400 kilometers (250 mi) of river to determine nesting locations, nesting density, nest depredation rates, and anthropogenic pressures on the turtles.
The type locality — the place tied to the name-bearing specimen — is "India"; restricted by M.A. Smith 1931:131, to "N. India.".
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
The diet of red-crowned roofed turtles consists entirely of aquatic plants. In the breeding season, the heads and necks of male turtles exhibit bright red, yellow and blue coloration.
India has put conservation measures in place, and a captive breeding programme has been initiated.
In crisis
Historically, this turtle was found in central Nepal, northeastern India, Bangladesh and probably Burma (Myanmar), but it has suffered declines in population due to being harvested for meat and shells, drowned in fishing nets, water pollution, hydro-electric schemes and habitat loss. Fewer than four hundred adult females are thought to remain in the wild, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature rating this turtle as being "critically endangered". The large Batagur turtles are probably the most threatened freshwater turtles in India.
Their populations have now been drastically reduced due to poaching for their meat and shells, accidental drowning in fishing gear, water pollution, hydroelectric infrastructure projects, habitat destruction by sand mining, and egg predation by jackals.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Red-crowned roofed 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 Red-crowned roofed turtle, Wikidata item Q306355. 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.
