Vietnamese three-striped box turtle

Vietnamese three-striped box turtle
A brown turtle in sand
CITES Appendix II (CITES)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Testudinoidea
Family: Geoemydidae
Genus: Cuora
Species:
C. cyclornata
Binomial name
Cuora cyclornata
Blanck, Mccord & Le, 2006

The Vietnamese three-striped box turtle or green rice turtle (Cuora cyclornata) is a species of the Southeast Asian genus Cuora (family Geoemydidae). It is distributed from the extreme southern part of the Chinese Guangxi province southwards to central Vietnam and central Laos. This species reaches up to 30 cm straight carapace length and is thus the largest Cuora species. Due to demand of traditional Chinese medicine, this species is nearly extinct in the wild, but is readily bred on Chinese turtle farms.[2] Extremely high prices are paid for this species in China. It can be distinguished from Cuora trifasciata by its larger size and generally more oval or rounder shell, which is usually also flatter, a white, pink, or orange chin, and head coloration with an orange-brownish-olive dorsal head pattern and less black pigment.

  1. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  2. ^ Zhou, T.; McCord, W.; Blanck, T. & Li, P. P. (2007). "Cuora trifasciata and Cuora cyclornata - captive breeding in China". Reptilia (GB). (50): 68-73.