An Asian giant tortoise is one of the rarest species of tortoise in the world. A research team has now succeeded not only in tracking down such animals, but also in accompanying them during breeding. The scientists report that villagers provided information about the freshwater turtles, which are up to one meter large, on the Chandragiri River in the Indian region of Kerala.
Cantor’s giant softshell turtles (Pelochelys cantorii) are native to rivers in South and Southeast Asia. They are classified as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, among other things due to the destruction of their habitat. Accordingly, there is an extremely high risk of extinction in nature in the immediate future.
During previous surveys in India, no specimens could be detected in the wild, as the team led by Veerappan Deepak from the Animal Science Museum of the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research in Dresden and Francoise Cavada-Blanco from the University of Portsmouth (Great Britain) explains. A nesting female has now been discovered at Chandragiri and eggs have been rescued from flooded nests. The hatched young animals were later released into the river.
The team reported on their research project in the specialist magazine “Oryx”.
