The Burmese roofed turtle (''Batagur trivittata'') is one of six

turtle Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tu ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the genus ''

Batagur ''Batagur'' is a genus of large turtles from South and Southeast Asia. All members of the genus are seriously threatened. With a recent merger with members from two other genera,Praschag, Peter; Hundsdörfer, Anna K.; and Fritz, Uwe (2007)''Phylo ...

'' of the family

Geoemydidae The Geoemydidae (formerly known as Bataguridae) are one of the largest and most diverse families in the order Testudines (turtles), with about 70 species. The family includes the Eurasian pond and river turtles and Neotropical wood turtles. Memb ...

. It is a freshwater turtle

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and was thought to be extinct until rediscovered in 2002. Less than individuals were known by 2018. The female Burmese roofed turtle grows significantly larger than the male; the male's usually green head transforms during the breeding season to a bright chartreuse-yellow with bold black markings. In 2007, an illegally traded individual was seen in Qingping market in

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

, China.

Conservation

The Burmese roofed turtle is nationally protected and listed in

CITES Appendix II CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

. The captive population in five zoos comprised about 1,000 individuals as of 2018. Several hundred Burmese roofed turtles are kept in the

Yadanabon Zoological Gardens The Yadanabon Zoological Gardens ( my, ရတနာပုံ တိရိစ္ဆာန် ဥယျာဉ် ) is a zoo in Mandalay, Myanmar. The zoo has nearly 300 animals, including tigers, leopards and elephants, and plays a major part in t ...

Mandalay Mandalay ( or ; ) is the second-largest city in Myanmar, after Yangon. Located on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, 631km (392 miles) (Road Distance) north of Yangon, the city has a population of 1,225,553 (2014 census). Mandalay was fo ...

and a turtle conservation center in Lawkananda Park,

Bagan Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that wou ...

. Some have been released to the wild. In the years that followed, researchers found several specimens of the Burmese roofed turtle and took them to captivity.

References

External links

Batagur Reptiles of Myanmar Endemic fauna of Myanmar Reptiles described in 1835 Taxa named by André Marie Constant Duméril Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{turtle-stub