Red-crowned roofed turtle

It can weigh up to {{convert|25|kg|lb}} and have shells as long as {{convert|56|cm|in|sp=us}}. Males reach only half the length of females. At the end of the rainy season, the heads and necks of male turtles develop a brilliant courtship coloration of red, yellow, white, and blue, with 6 distinctive bright red stripes on top of the head.

{{citation

|url=http://www.conservation.org/FMG/Articles/Pages/red-crowned_roof_turtle.aspx

|title=Red-Crowned roof turtle

|date= 2007-08-07

|first= Linda

|last=Yun

|publisher= Conservation International

|access-date=2011-01-01

}}

The carapace of the young is strongly keeled. The keels are tubercular posteriorly on the second and third vertebral shields. The posterior margin is strongly crenulated. The marginal serrature disappears in adolescent specimens and the vertebral keel, after being reduced to a series of low knobs, vanishes entirely in the full-grown, the carapace of which is very convex. The nuchal shield is small, trapezoidal and broadest posteriorly. The first vertebral is as broad or broader in front as behind. The second vertebral is longer than the third, with which it forms a straight transverse suture. The fourth is longest and forms a broad suture with the third. The second vertebral is broader than long in the young, and as long as broad in the adult. Plastron is angulate laterally in the young. The anterior and posterior lobes are rather narrow and shorter than the width of the bridge, truncate anteriorly and are openly notched posteriorly. The longest median suture is between the abdominals and the shortest is between the gulars, which equals about one half that between the humerals. The suture between gulars and humerals forms an obtuse angle, as does that between humerals and pectorals. The inguinal is large and the axillary is smaller.{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8AYAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Batagur+kachuga%22+description&pg=PA42|title=36. Kachuga lineata, p. 40 (=Batagur kachuga, Theob. Cat. p. 10. ) |work=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma. Reptilia and Batrachia. |year= 1890|first= G.A. |last=Boulenger |author-link=George Albert Boulenger |publisher=London: Secretary of State for India in Council. Taylor and Francis, Printers.|pages=xviii + 541|access-date=2011-01-02}}{{PD-notice}}

The head is moderate size with an obtuse and moderately prominent snout. The jaws have denticulated edges with the upper not notched mesially. Alveolar surfaces are very broad, the median ridge of the upper jaw being somewhat nearer the outer than the inner margin. Choanae are behind the line of the posterior borders of the orbits. The width of the lower jaw at the symphysis equals the diameter of the orbit. The limbs have transversely enlarged, band-like scales which are colored brown above and yellowish below. The nape has red longitudinal lines.

This reptile was historically widespread in Central Nepal, NE India, Bangladesh, primarily in deep flowing freshwater rivers with terrestrial nest sites in the watershed of the Ganges River and probably NW Burma. Type locality: "India"; restricted by M.A. Smith 1931:131, to "N. India."

{{citation

|url = http://www.conservation.org/Documents/CI_worlds_tortoises_freshwater_turtles_global_conservation_strategy_2010.pdf

|title = Red-crowned River Turtle, Batagur kachuga – India – CR

|work = Status of the World’s Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles a summary overview

|page = 5

|author1 = van Dijk, Peter Paul

|date = August 2010

|publisher = Conservation International

|access-date = 2011-01-02

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110928081231/http://www.conservation.org/Documents/CI_worlds_tortoises_freshwater_turtles_global_conservation_strategy_2010.pdf

|archivedate = 2011-09-28

}}

The National Chambal Sanctuary portion of the Chambal River has received moderate protection since 1979 as India's only protected riverine habitat. It is believed to be one of the last viable habitats for this species, though even here, B. kachuga are rare.

{{citation

|url=http://www.turtlesurvival.org/blog/1/54

|title=Chambal River Sanctuary Program Protects Two Species of Sympatric Batagur

|date= 2009-08-01

|author1=Singh, Shailendra |author2=Brian Horne

|name-list-style=amp |publisher=Turtle Survival Alliance

|access-date=2011-01-01

}}

Recent annual nesting surveys indicate fewer than 400 adult females remaining in the wild.

{{citation

|url=http://www.sandiegozoo.org/conservation/animals/reptiles/turtles_in_india_get_head_start/

|title=Turtles in India Get Head Start

|work=San Diego Institute for Conservation Research

|year=2010

|publisher=Zoological Society of San Diego |access-date=2011-01-01

}}

The diet of red-crowned roofed turtles consists entirely of aquatic plants.Das, I. 2002. A Photographic Guide to Snakes and Other Reptiles of India. Ralph Curtis Books. Sanibel Island, Florida. 144 pp. {{ISBN|0-88359-056-5}}. ("Painted Roofed Turtle Kachuga kachuga", p. 127.)

They leave the water to thermoregulate by basking in the sun on rocks, logs, and sandbanks.

Adult females lay eggs in March and April. The eggs are {{convert|64|-|75|mm|in|abbr=on|frac=4}} long by {{convert|38|–|46|mm|in|abbr=on|frac=4}} wide. Clutch size varies from 11 to 30 eggs.

The large Batagur turtles are probably the most threatened freshwater turtles in India. Their populations have now been drastically reduced due to poaching for their meat and shells, accidental drowning in fishing gear, water pollution, hydroelectric infrastructure projects, habitat destruction by sand mining, and egg predation by jackals.

Since 2004, B. kachuga has reproduced in captivity at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust. A total of 132 eggs were laid through 2009 with an overall viability of 69%. 75 hatchlings were produced from these eggs, with 24 young turtles sent to Uttar Pradesh for release in 2007.

{{citation

|url=http://www.turtlesurvival.org/blog/1/43

|title=Update on the captive breeding of the red-crowned roof turtle at the MCBT

|date= 2009-08-01

|first=Nikhil

|last=Whitaker

|publisher=Turtle Survival Alliance

|access-date=2011-01-01

}}

Since 2006, the Chambal River Sanctuary Program of Turtle Survival Alliance- India has implemented projects to protect wild nests, collect and hatch wild eggs in hatchery conditions, raise hatchlings to {{convert|1|kg|lb}} at about 4 years age, conduct survival and migration studies of tagged and released hatchlings and conduct surveys over {{convert|400|km|mi|sp=us}} of river to determine nesting locations, nesting density, nest depredation rates, and anthropogenic pressures on the turtles.

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• Safi, A., Khan, M. Z., 2014. Distribution and current population of freshwater turtles of District Charsadda of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The Journal of Zoology studies. 1(4): 31–38. http://www.journalofzoology.com
• Moll, E.O. 1986. Survey of the freshwater turtles of India. The genus Kachuga. [2 parts] J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 83 (3): 538–552.
• Gray, J.E. 1831. Illustrations of Indian Zoology: chiefly selected from the collection of Major General Hardwicke. Vol. 1, London (1830–1835).
• Gray, J.E. 1862. Notice of two new species of Batagur in the collection of the British Museum. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1862:264-265.
• Gray, J.E. 1863. Notice of two new species of Batagur in the collection of the British Museum. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 12: 74–75.

{{Refend}}

• {{NRDB species|genus=Kachuga|species=kachuga }}
• http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Kachuga_kachuga.jpg
• http://itgmv1.fzk.de/www/itg/uetz/herp/photos/Kachuga_kachuga_female.jpg

{{Geoemydidae}}

{{Taxonbar|from=Q306355}}

Category:Reptiles of India

Category:Reptiles described in 1831

Category:Taxa named by John Edward Gray

Category:Batagur