Critically Endangered
Southern river terrapin
Batagur affinis
The southern river terrapin is a riverine turtle of the family Geoemydidae found in Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia.
Appearance
A large river turtle with an average carapace length of 625 mm, and an average body weight of 38kg with a big shell proportionate to its large size. The high-arched shell is rife with buttresses that provide structural support and protect its vital organs. The shell is responsible for a quarter of the terrapin's body weight, consisting of a carapace with wide vertebral scutes and an anteriorly truncate plastron that is relatively shorter in length (than the carapace).
In addition to difference in body size, adult males can be identified by their more extensive tail that is longer length and is thicker.
Range and habitat
Southern River Terrapins be found primarily in brackish estuaries, mangrove creeks, coastal lagoons, inland freshwater rivers, and tidal regions of large rivers. Movements of the turtles in the river occur simultaneously with the direction of the water current. When the tides rise, they enter small river tributaries and forage on bank vegetation.
Today, facilities located in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand possess adults for the purpose of eventual release when reintroduction may be necessary to maintain wild populations as they continue to disappear.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
Their diet consists of vegetation, fruits, and mollusks. Courtship upon river terrapin mates involve both noses touching one another until the male raises his head, opens his mouth and pulses his throat and lower jaw to expose white throat stripes that adds heavy contrast to the dark black head and body.
In crisis
In July 2015, conservationists in Cambodia cautiously stated that efforts to bring back the species from the brink of extinction were having some success. The Malaysian government has established hatcheries and licensed egg collectors, who take from certain permitted areas so that terrapin populations can have high turn over rate to ensure the survival of the species. As a result poaching is increasing.
In Malaysia, rivers of Kedah, Perak and Terengganu are major nesting grounds though the population continues to crash despite conservation efforts undertaken by Malaysian Wildlife Department for over 20 years.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Southern river terrapin 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 Southern river terrapin, Wikidata item Q2592204. 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.
