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SPINY TURTLE

Scientific name     

Heosemys spinosa

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Distribution

Southern Myanmar through Thailand and Malay Peninsula to Sumatra, Borneo and various small Indonesian Islands

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Shell Length

Adult: 17 - 22 cm

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Hatchling

6.3 cm

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Adult Weight

1.5 - 2 kg

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Clutch Size

1 - 3 eggs

 

Incubation

About 106 days

 

Diet

Mostly herbivorous by nature. Eats fallen fruits, leaves, shoots and sometimes also invertebrates and carrion.

 

Habitat 

Shallow, clear rainforest streams at altitudes from 170 m up to 1000 m where it frequently wanders about on land in cool, humid, shaded areas. It often hides in leaf litter. Young may be more terrestrial than adults.

 

Lifespan

22.9 years (Captivity)


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Characteristic         

It is a forest floor dweller. The attractive juveniles have a carapace which is heavily serrated at the margin, but in adults this feature is reduced to small serrations only on the rear margin of the carapace. The heads of both adults and juveniles bear a distinctive arrangement of reddish spots and blotches on the snout and behind the eye. Adults can be identified by the reddish, or sometimes yellowish, markings on the head and neck and the reddish spot behind the eye. Juveniles and adults have a vertebral keel along the back of the carapace. Their plastral scute has radiating black lines on the upper and middle suture.

IUCN Red List

Endangered

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Local Name

KURA-KURA DURI

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