Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October
2019 | 11(13): 14770–14772
Elusive,
rare and soft: a new site record of Leith’s Softshell Turtle Nilssonia leithii (Reptilia: Testudines: Trionychidae)
from Bhadra Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, India
H.S. Sathya Chandra Sagar 1, M. Mrunmayee
2, I.N. Chethan 3, Manish Kumar
4 & D.V. Girish 5
1,3,4 Wildlife
Conservation Action Team – Chikamagaluru (WildCAT-C), Bharath Scouts and Guides Building, District
Field, Chikamagaluru, Karnataka 577101, India.
2 Wildlife
Conservation and Nature Education (WildCANE), Jakkanahalli Post, Mallandur, Chikmagalur, Karnataka 577130, India.
5 Bhadra
Wildlife Conservation Trust, Kalleshwara Estate, Kaimara post, Chikamagaluru,
Karnataka 577156, India.
1 sathyachandrasagar@gmail.com
(corresponding author),
2 mrunmayee.amarnath@gmail.com,
3 chethanin19@gmail.com, 4 wcmanish@gmail.com, 5 girish422@gmail.com
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5249.11.13.14770-14772
|
ZooBank: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:EEB47B15-B3B3-4867-81F2-5E629FA62CD2
Editor: Raju Vyas, Vadodara, Gujarat, India. Date
of publication: 26 October 2019 (online & print)
Manuscript details: #5249 | Received 15 July 2019 |
Final received 04 October 2019 | Finally accepted 09 October 2019
Citation: Sagar, H.S.S.C., Mrunmayee,
I.N. Chethan, M. Kumar & D.V. Girish (2019). Elusive, rare and soft: a new site record of Leith’s
Softshell Turtle Nilssonia leithii (Reptilia:
Testudines: Trionychidae) from Bhadra Tiger Reserve,
Karnataka, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 11(13): 14770–14772; https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.5249.11.13.14770-14772
Copyright: © Sagar et al 2019. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s)
and the source of publication.
Funding: Our travel
was funded by The Wildheart Trust, Isle of Wight Zoo, UK.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
interests.
Acknowledgements: We thank Mr. Manu and Mr. Anil, forest watchers - Karnataka Forest
Department for finding the species.
Leith’s Softshell Turtle Nilssonia
leithii (Gray, 1872) is
a large freshwater turtle with a carapace length growing up to 720–1,000
mm. Being rare within its range, it
occurs in most rivers and reservoirs of peninsular India, replacing the Indian
Softshell Turtle Nilssonia gangetica of northern India (Sirsi
2010; Das et al. 2014). Except for the
projected native distribution by Das et al. (2014) using GIS-defined hydrologic
unit compartments, there have been no explicit records of N. leithii’s
presence from Bhadra River flowing through Bhadra Tiger Reserve. This makes our sighting of N. leithii’s
hatchling, the first-ever record of its presence, and indirect evidence of its
nesting along the banks of Bhadra River within Bhadra Tiger Reserve (Figure
1). Based on the review conducted by Das
et al. (2014) and us, our record is the third ever documented record of Leith’s
Softshell Turtle’s hatching from the wild, with previous records from Moyar River in Tamil Nadu (Das et al. 2014) and Chalakudy River in Kerala (Nameer
et al. 2007), over 25 and 12 years ago, respectively.
The individual that we observed, was a hatchling, with
an approximate carapace length of 6cm (Image 1a). It was found on 7 July 2019 at 14:46h inside
a puddle on a forest road that runs beside the Bhadra River, within the tiger
reserve (13.4350N, 75.5100E). The carapace was greyish-green in colour with
prominent vermiculation, running from top to bottom. The carapace also contained four eye-like
concentric circular spots, with a blackish core surrounded by a reddish circle
(Image 1b). The spots on the carapace
were arranged as three in one row near the middle of the carapace and one near
the bottom. The head of the hatchling
was greenish with black streaks running from eye to the neck. The corner of the mouth was found to have
yellow patches on either side (Image 1a).
We observed the hatchling for over 10 minutes and, released it into the
Bhadra River.
For
figure & images – click here
References
Das, I., S. Sirsi, K.
Vasudevan & B.H.C.K. Murthy (2014). Nilssonia leithii (Gray 1872) – Leith’s
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Pritchard, P.P. van Dijk, R.A.Saumure, K.A. Buhlmann, J.B. Iverson & R.A. Mittermeier (eds.).
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