Manouria impressa (Impressed Tortoise)
The common name of this Tortoise in English is commonly called Impressed Tortoise and Thai name called เต่าเดือย (Dtao Deuay), เต่าควะ (Dtao Kwa), เต่าเขาสูง (Dtao Kao Soong).
เต่าเดือย : Manouria impressa (Günther, 1882)
Manouria impressa is a species of the Brown Tortoise Genus (Manouria) 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 Günther, A. Description of a new species of tortoise (Geoemyda impressa) from Siam. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1882: 343-346. (1882).
Geographic Range
The range of Manouria impressa occurs in the northern, western and eastern hills in Myanmar, the western edge of northeastern and northwestern Thailand, northeastern Lao, the Annamite Mountains in Lao PDR and Viet Nam, southwestern Cambodia and western Peninsular Malaysia. In China it is reported from Hainan and Yunnan.
Habitat and Ecology
Manouria impressa inhabits upper evergreen montane forests between 900 and 1,600 m of elevation (above 1,200 m asl in China). It does not tolerate degraded forests. Manouria impressa shelters beneath logs, and is inactive for long periods of the year (aestivate).
In Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary, Thailand, M. impressa exhibits seasonal variation in habitat use between montane forest, montane scrub forest and bamboo forest; however montane forest was the most utilised habitat throughout the year in both adults and juveniles.
A single individual has been found at about 450 m in dry deciduous dipterocarp forest in Phu Kradueng National Park, Thailand. Habitat selection of M. impressa may associate with food abundance.
M. impressa is a specialist feeder, consuming mushrooms in the rainy season, and green plants during the rest of the active period. Most mushrooms consumed by M. impressa are edible and preferred by local people (Wanchai 2012).
Courting and mating have been observed in all seasons in Thailand, but peak in the rainy season. Clutch size in one observed wild nest was estimated at 8–10 eggs. (Wanchai et. al. 2013).
Generation length is estimated at 19 years (age of first reproduction = 12 years, lifespan = 35 years, reproductive period = 23 years, z = 0.3). Three generations correspond to 57 years.
Type locality: Siam [= Thailand]
Synonym
- Geoemyda impressa Albert Charles Lewis Günther (1882)
- Testudo emys George Albert Boulenger (1889)
- Geoemyda latinuchalis Léon Louis Vaillant (1894)
- Testudo pseudemys George Albert Boulenger (1903)
- Testudo pseudemys George Albert Boulenger (in Nelson Annandale & Robinson) (1903)
- Testudo latinuchalis Friedrich Siebenrock (1909)
- Testudo impressa Malcolm Arthur Smith (1922)
- Geochelone impressa Peter Charles Howard Pritchard (1967)
- Manouria impressa Roger Bour (1980)
- Manouria impressa Fritz Jürgen Obst (1985)
- Geochelone (Manouria) impressa David Alderton (1988)
- Manowria impressa Zhou & Zhou (1991)
- Manouria impressa Ulrich Manthey & Wolfgang Grossmann (1997)
- Manouria impressa Merel J. Cox et al. (1998)
- Manouria impressa Nguyen Van Sang et al. (2009)