Indotestudo elongata (Yellow-Headed Tortoise)
The common name of this Tortoise in English is commonly called Elongated Tortoise, Yellow-headed Tortoise, Pineapple Tortoise, Red-nosed Tortoise, Yellow Tortoise and Thai name called เต่าเหลือง (Dtao Leuang), เต่าขี้ผึ้ง (Dtao Kee Peung), เต่าเทียน (Dtao tiian), เต่าเพ็ก (Dtao pek).
เต่าเหลือง : Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854)
Indotestudo elongata is a species of the Asian Elongated Tortoise Genus (Indotestudo) within the Tortoise Family (Testudinidae), Superfamily Testudinoidea, in the Suborder Cryptodira, in the Turtles Order (Testudines), in the Reptile Class (Reptilia), in the Chordate Phylum (Chordata) in the Animal Kingdom (Animalia).
Published in Blyth,E. Notices and descriptions of various reptiles, new or little-known. Part I. J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 22 [1853]: 639-655. (1854).
Geographic Range
Indotestudo elongata is widely distributed across South and Southeast Asia. The western most limit of the species range is in in Kaleshar Wildlife Sanctuary in the foothills of Himalayas in the Arravali Range.
It has localised occurrences in northern and eastern India, Nepal and Bangladesh, Bhutan and much of Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia, and scattered occurrences in Lao PDR and Viet Nam, and extreme northwestern Peninsular Malaysia (Iverson 1992).
Records from PR China (Guangxi) are derived from market animals. In Nepal, Indotestudo elongata is restricted to the terai vegetation zone; much of the terai has been converted to agriculture, and the species is now restricted to terai habitat in Chitwan National Park.
A disjunct subpopulation occurs on the Chota Nagpur Plateau in eastern India, which appears to have been isolated from the Himalayan foothills by the alluvial plain and changing environmental conditions after the formation of the Indo-Gangetic Plain (Ilhow et al. 2016).
Connectivity across the Brahmaputra is uncertain, as there is potentially a connection from the Himalayan foothills through the Sal forest belt to Orissa.
Habitat and Ecology
Elongated Tortoises inhabit primarily deciduous forest types (Sal, Dry Dipterocarp, Mixed Deciduous forests) with open, broken canopy allowing sufficient light for a moderate to very dense undergrowth of grasses and herbs; during the dry, leafless season animals may retreat to evergreen stream gallery forest. Records are mostly from hilly areas from low altitude to about 600 m altitude.
In the Himalayas it has not been recorded over 500 m (M.F. Ahmed pers. comm. 2018). In Cambodia they are considered predominantly a lowland species in gentle sloping terrain.
Local and seasonal movements are modest and seemingly random, tortoises apparently being confined to particular areas by features of habitat and topography (Moll 1989, Das 1991, van Dijk 1998).
Indotestudo elongata is primarily crepuscular, with activity in the early morning and late afternoon, avoiding extremely high air temperatures of up to 48°C in the forest in the middle of the day.
During periods of inactivity, tortoises retreat into dense vegetation, alongside fallen debris, in buttresses of trees, in caves or burrows.
The species appears to have large home ranges (Ihlow et al. 2014), signifying a need for large areas of suitable habitat to be protected.
Historically the species has benefited from disturbance of evergreen forest in northern Lao PDR and Viet Nam, as it prefers primarily deciduous forest types (R. Timmins pers comm. 2018).
Elongated Tortoises consume a wide diversity of foods, feeding mainly on soft leaves and fruits, while mushrooms, carrion and carnivore scats are eaten when available. (van Dijk 1998).
Elongated Tortoises of both sexes reach maturity at about 20 cm carapace length and a weight just over 1 kg, at an estimated age of 10-14 years (van Dijk 1998).
Maximum size is usually 30 cm, but exceptional animals reach 35 cm carapace length. Hatchling size is approximately 4-5 cm (S. Schoppe pers. comm. 2018).
Females produce one or possibly two clutches of 1-5 eggs towards the end of the rainy season (van Dijk 1998). Generation length is estimated to be a minimum of 30 years, but is likely to be substantially longer.
Indotestudo elongata has long been used by humans as a source of food. Currently, I. elongata is heavily exploited for food and traditional medicine throughout its range (Ihlow et al. 2016).
Both opportunistic collection and deliberate hunting with dogs continue for local use and export to the international wildlife trade (Ihlow et al. 2016).
During the 1990s I. elongata were common in the Vietnamese wildlife trade and in Cambodia. It has often been reported as one of the most abundant species available in China (Ihlow et al. 2016).
This species is also available in the international pet trade, however, the impact is small compared to the volume of trade for food and medicine. Currently the demand for pets in the United States and Europe is mostly met by captive breeding, however, some wild-caught animals still occur (Ihlow et al. 2016).
Synonym
- Testudo elongata Edward Blyth (1853)
- Testudo elongata Edward Blyth (1854)
- Testudo elongata John Edward Gray (1857)
- Peltastes elongatus John Edward Gray (1869)
- Testudo parallelus Nelson Annandale (1913)
- Indotestudo elongata René Léon Bourret (1941)
- Geochelone elongata Peter Charles Howard Pritchard (1967)
- Geochelone elongata Peter Charles Howard Pritchard (1979)
- Indotestudo elongata Roger Bour (1980)
- Indotestudo elongata elongata Fritz Jürgen Obst (1985)
- Indotestudo elongata Fritz Jürgen Obst (1985)
- Geochelone (Indotestudo) elongata David Alderton (1988)
- Geochelone elongata elongata Jerzy Gosławski & Adam Hryniewicz (1993)
- Indotestudo elongata Ulrich Manthey & Wolfgang Grossmann (1997)
- Indotestudo elongata Merel J. Cox et al. (1998)
- Indotestudo elongata Thomas Ziegler (2002)
- Indotestudo elongata Turtle Taxonomy Working Group (TTWG) (2014)