Species Fact Profile: Sulawesi Forest Turtle (Leucocephalon yuwoni)

                                                                    Sulawesi Forest Turtle

                                           Leucocephalon yuwoni (McCord, Inverson, & Boeadi, 1995)

Range: Minhasa Peninsula in Northern Sulawesi (Indonesia)  

Habitat: Mountain Freshwater Wetlands and Rivers

Diet: Invertebrates, Vegetation, Fruit

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Females usually lay 1 egg per clutch (6.5 x 4.5 centimeters, well-calcified), sometimes a second.  They may lay multiple clutches per year.  Observations in captivity suggest sexual maturity reached at 7-10 years old.  Hatchlings 5 centimeters long

Lifespan: Unknown

      Conservation Status: IUCN Critically Endangered, CITES Appendix II 

• Body length 24-28 centimeters, with males typically larger than females.  Shell is flat and wide with three keels.  Plastron is unhinged, carapace is serrated at rear.  Head is large; male has a strongly hooked beak
• Male has a white or yellowish head (with some scattered brown or black spots), whereas female has a brown head.  Limbs are brown with some light markings.  Shell is brown to burnt orange in color.  Plastron has radiating pattern
• Latin name honors Indonesian herpetologist and animal collector Frank Bambang Yuwono, who obtained the first specimens from the wild.  Genus name from the Latin for “white headed” (previously in the genera Geoemyda and Heosemys before being place in its own genus)
•  Estimated fewer than 100 in the wild. Primary cause of decline is illegal collection for both the pet trade and for human consumption (2,000-3,000 individuals were taken in 1998).  Species is especially vulnerable due to its very low reproductive rate, while habitat preference for clear, shallow streams makes them easy to find and catch.  Legal trade was closed in 2002 and now rarely seen in the trade due to its extreme scarcity, but some illegal collection still occurs.  Habitat destruction also is a threat
• First reported in US in 1998 when two individuals were imported from the wild by a private breeder.  Captive breeding started in earnest in 2013, with much of the reproduction driven by the Denver Zoo.  Wild-born specimens still outnumber zoo-borns, though captive breeding is improving and increasing.