Saturday 25 May
Endangered Species of the Week: Kakapo - the World's Favourite Species!
Batagur (Batagur baska)
CRITICALLYENDANGERED
What’s the World’s Favourite Species?
Find out here.Batagur fact file
- Description
- Biology
- Range
- Habitat
- Status
- Threats
- Conservation
- Find out more
- Glossary
- References
- Print factsheet
Batagur description
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Reptilia |
| Order | Testudines |
| Family | Bataguridae |
| Genus | Batagur (1) |
The batagur is one of Asia's largest freshwater turtles; individuals can reach up to 60 cm in length (2). The shell (carapace) is brown and the body colour varies both between the sexes and in different seasons; mature males develop an intense black colour and dramatically white eyes during the breeding season (2).
- Also known as
- tuntong.
- French
- Batagur Malais.
- Spanish
- Galápago Batagur.
- Size
- Length: up to 60 cm (2)
- Carapace
- The top shell of a turtle. In arthropods (insects, crabs etc), the fused head and thorax (the part of the body located near the head) also known as ‘cephalothorax’.
- IUCN Red List (April, 2003) www.redlist.org
- Pritchard, P.C.H. (1979) Encyclopedia of Turtles. TFH Publication, Neptune, New Jersey.
- CITES (April, 2003) www.cites.org
- Turtles of the World (April, 2003) http://emys.geo.orst.edu
- Blanco, S. Behler, J.L. Kostel, F. (1991) Propagation of the Batagurine Turtles Batagur baska and Callagur borneoensis at the Bronx Zoo. From: Proceedings 1st International Symposium on Turtles & Tortoises: Conservation and Captive Husbandry: 63-65. Available at: http://www.tortoise.org/archives/batagur.html
- Alderton, D. (1988) Turtles and Tortoises of the World. Blandford Press, London.
- New York Turtle and Tortoise Society (April, 2003) http://www.nytts.org/asianturtlecrisis.html
- Tortoise Trust (April, 2003) http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/asia.html
- view the contents of, and Material on, the website;
- download and retain copies of the Material on their personal systems in digital form in low resolution for their own personal use;
- teachers, lecturers and students may incorporate the Material in their educational material (including, but not limited to, their lesson plans, presentations, worksheets and projects) in hard copy and digital format for use within a registered educational establishment, provided that the integrity of the Material is maintained and that copyright ownership and authorship is appropriately acknowledged by the End User.
More »
Top
Related species
Batagur biology
Little is known about the natural ecology and behaviour of batagurs, partly because the highly silted rivers of their habitat make observations particularly difficult (5). Individuals are known to undertake massive seasonal migrations of 50 to 60 miles to the sand banks that constitute their breeding grounds (2). Females usually lay three clutches of between 10 and 30 eggs each during the breeding season (2); when she has laid her clutch of eggs she covers the nest with sand and then rises and falls on the surface to compact the sand, the resultant rhythmic 'tun tonk' sound has led to the species' Malay name of 'tuntong' (6).
TopBatagur range
Found in central and southeast Asia, from India and Bangladesh eastwards to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia (4).
More »
Top
Species with a similar range
Batagur habitat
Batagurs are found in the estuaries and tidal reaches of large rivers (5).
More »
Top
Species found in a similar habitat
Batagur status
Classified as Critically Endangered (CR - A1cd) on the IUCN Red List 2002 (1), and listed on Appendix I of CITES (3).
Batagur threats
Numbers of batagur have been decimated by the loss of habitat and the over-collection of both adults and eggs (5). Recently, there has been an increase in the market for turtle meat and eggs in Asia and the resulting unsustainable harvest has pushed many species to the brink of extinction (7). It is estimated that batugars in Malaysia declined by over 90% during the 20th Century (8), and the species is now considered to be Critically Endangered (1).
TopBatagur conservation
These turtles are listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) (3); international trade is thus prohibited, although illegal collection is still widespread (1). The Bronx Zoo in New York has recently achieved the first captive breeding of batagurs and this may offer a glimmer of hope for the survival of this fascinating turtle (5).
|
To learn more about a Whitley Award-winning conservation project for this species, click here. |
|
View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. |
Authentication
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact: arkive@wildscreen.org.ukTopGlossary
References
More »Related species
Sign up to our newsletter
Get the latest wild news direct to your inbox.
Get involved
ARKive relies on its media donors to donate photos and videos. Can you help? There are plenty of other ways you can get involved too!
X
Close
Close
Image credit
X
Close
Close
Link to this photo
Embed this ARKive thumbnail link by copying and pasting the code below.
Terms of Use - The displayed thumbnail may be used as a link from your website to ARKive's online content for private, scientific, conservation or educational purposes only. It may NOT be used within Apps.
Read more about
X
Close
Close
MyARKive
MyARKive offers the scrapbook feature to signed-up members, allowing you to organize your favourite ARKive images and videos and share them with friends.
X
Close
Close
Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials
Copyright in this website and materials contained on this website (Material) belongs to Wildscreen or its licensors.
Visitors to this website (End Users) are entitled to:
End Users shall not copy or otherwise extract, alter or manipulate Material other than as permitted in these Terms and Conditions of Use of Materials.
Additional use of flagged material
Green flagged material 
Certain Material on this website (Licence 4 Material) displays a green flag next to the Material and is available for not-for-profit conservation or educational use. This material may be used by End Users, who are individuals or organisations that are in our opinion not-for-profit, for their not-for-profit conservation or not-for-profit educational purposes. Low resolution, watermarked images may be copied from this website by such End Users for such purposes. If you require high resolution or non-watermarked versions of the Material, please contact Wildscreen with details of your proposed use.
Creative commons material
Certain Material on this website has been licensed to Wildscreen under a Creative Commons Licence. These images are clearly marked with the Creative Commons buttons and may be used by End Users only in the way allowed by the specific Creative Commons Licence under which they have been submitted. Please see http://creativecommons.org for details.
Any other use
Please contact the copyright owners directly (copyright and contact details are shown for each media item) to negotiate terms and conditions for any use of Material other than those expressly permitted above. Please note that many of the contributors to ARKive are commercial operators and may request a fee for such use.
Save as permitted above, no person or organisation is permitted to incorporate any copyright material from this website into any other work or publication in any format (this includes but is not limited to: websites, Apps, CDs, DVDs, intranets, extranets, signage, digital communications or on printed materials for external or other distribution). Use of the Material for promotional, administrative or for-profit purposes is not permitted.