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Batagur affinis

Batagur affinis


Useful links and literature:
The Reptile Database: Batagur affinis

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The Making of Malaysia's Fortunate Tuntung

Baska: Bewitched by Batagur One of the modern strongholds for turtles of the genus  Batagur  is Malaysia, where several factors have led turtles of the genus to exist in a relatively good situation. This country is home to two species : the Southern River terrapin ( B. affinis ) and the Painted River terrapin ( B. borneoensis ),   and would have the largest wild (and probably captive) populations of both of these species. Why this is so is doubtless due to a number of factors including the ecosystem niche area available for these species to inhabit, the culture of the peoples of Malaysia, the relative political stability and subsequent economic stability of the nation, and the efforts of conservationists within and beyond government that have focused on these species for many years. Ecologically, the land and hydrology of the area that Malaysia exists on is rich, being tropical, with a great spine of mountains in the interior and an abundant hydrology that benefit...
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Malaysia's Tuntung

Baska: Bewitched by Batagur The Malay peninsula plus Sarawak on Borneo are the home to two species of Batagur: B. affinis (both subspecies: B. a. affinis and B. a. edwardmolli ) and B. borneoensis ( Iverson, 1992 ). These two species coexist in some rivers while vast differences in mating and nesting isolate the species from interbreeding. They have both been reported as existing with Sonneratia  spp of Mangrove Apple trees ( Guntoro, 2012a , Holloway, 2003 ), the fruit of which was long-thought to be a staple of the species. The Malay names for Batagur species is "Tuntung," an onomatopoeic name that either reflects the drumming sound produced by females as they drop their plastron onto the sand to disguise their nest after depositing the eggs (Moll, 1978) or the sound of the eggs exiting the cloaca and dropping onto the other eggs ( Guntoro, 2012 b). Use of this as a name reflects the most visible time for the species as they historically nested communally, sometime...
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Baska: bewitched by Batagur

In his fifty years at the British Museum of Natural History , John Edward Gray described 306 reptile  species (1)(Uetz, 2010). It would appear that he was a classic “splitter”;  naming one species under several names. One group that benefitted from Gray’s nomenclatural creativity is the genus of six species of large river turtles, Batagur. When he named the genus, he gave no etymology and none has since been deduced, leaving the word without meaning other than being a genus of turtles. This genus has been at the heart of scientific exploration of the 19th century and has seen the struggles of European colonisation of Asia. Members of the genus have been revered as the property of Royalty and most populations have been decimated through their harvest of adults and eggs. Batagur contains five of the twenty-five most endangered species in the world (TCC, 2011). Consequently,  Batagur  turtles have been the subject of innovative conservation breeding efforts, taxo...
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