Critically Endangered
Roti Island snake-necked turtle
Chelodina mccordi
The Roti Island snake-necked turtle is a critically endangered turtle species.
Appearance
The color of the carapace is a pale grey brown. Occasionally there are also specimens that have a chestnut-coloured hue. The plastron is a pale buff white.
The carapace of Roti Island snake-necked turtle can reach a straight length of 18–24 centimetres (7.1–9.4 in).
Range and habitat
The natural habitat of Roti Island snake-necked turtle includes swamps, rice terraces, and small lakes. The Roti Island snake-necked turtle, also called McCord's snakeneck turtle, is a critically endangered turtle species. One of its common names refers to Rote Island in Indonesia, where it was first discovered.
The Roti Island snake-necked turtle is one of the most desired turtles in the international pet trade. The two or three remaining populations live in an area of only 70 km2 (27 square miles) in the central highlands of Rote Island.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Adults of Roti Island snake-necked turtle may have up to three breeding periods in a year. The size of an egg is 30 mm × 20 mm (1.18 in × 0.79 in) and may weigh 8–10 grams (0.28–0.35 oz).
In crisis
Some individuals were later discovered in Timor-Leste, and are considered a distinct subspecies. Outside of capture by humans there are few natural threats to this species. There are some reports of predation by feral pigs (Sus scrofa) and loss of habitat, but illegal capture and trade remain the primary threat.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Roti Island snake-necked 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 Roti Island snake-necked turtle, Wikidata item Q304547. 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.
