CARE AND BREEDING Dieter
CARE AND BREEDING Dieter Symanski Keeping and Breeding McCord’s Snake-Necked Turtle Chelodina mccordi RHODIN, 1994 McCord’s snake-necked turtle was first scientifically described in 1994 (RHODIN 1994), and already belongs to the highly endangered turtle species. I hope my experiences documented here will help to encourage a greater interest in this species and in turn help further successful breeding among the turtle keepers. Introduction It was already in 1895 that TEN KATE collected three snake-necked turtles on the Indonesian island of Roti which were described in 1895 by LIDTH DE JEUDE (RHODIN 1994). In spite of the fact that this island is geographically isolated from the distribution of Chelodina novaeguineae described in 1888 by BOULENGER, these three animals from Roti had been ascribed to this species without further investigation. RHODIN received 16 turtles from MCCORD for his study which was published in 1994. These turtles had been collected on Roti and had been handed over to MCCORD by YUWONO. In addition, RHODIN received two preserved specimens collected by TEN KATE in 1891 from the Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, provided by BRONGERSMA and HOOGMOED. A label with the inscription “Chelodina rottiensis BRONGERSMA” was attached to both specimens from the Leiden museum, but they had never been scientifically described under that name (RHODIN 1994) and therefore did not enter taxonomy with that description. RHODIN compared the 18 snake-necked turtles available to him with 177 other animals (43 Chelodina pritchardi from South-East Papua New Guinea, 51 C. novaeguineae from South- West Papua New Guinea and adjacent West Papua (Indonesia), 10 C. novaeguineae from North Australia, 54 C. longicollis from East Australia, 12 C. reimanni from the southeastern part of West Papua as well as 7 C. steindachneri from West Australia) and described the snake-necked turtles from Roti as a new species in 1994 – more than 100 years after their first registered discovery. In honour of MCCORD he called them Chelodina mccordi. Distribution and Habitat The species is endemic to the island of Roti (RHODIN 1994), which measures about 1,214 km² and lies off the south-west coast of the island of Timor (Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). This species was found only in rice fields (RHODIN 1994) with the exception of one sighting at lake “Danau Naloek (Naroek)” (TEN KATE 1894). Most of the rice fields are located in the south west of the island. There are also some small lakes and a few rice fields located in the north east, It’s possible that the species could also occur in this part of the island (RHODIN 1994). In 1996 RHODIN reduced the description of the distribution to three smaller, separated populations and a total remaining area of less than 70 km². Threats and Protection Since its scientific description in 1994, the wild populations have been further reduced by the collecting of animals for the international pet trade (RHODIN & GENORUPA 2000, SAMEDI & ISKANDAR 2000). Considering this and the already rather small distribution area, this species has now been classified as “Endangered” by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and is counted as one of the 25 10 RADIATA 13 (2), 2004
CARE AND BREEDING most threatened turtle species in the world by the Turtle Conservation Fund (TCF). A further danger to the remaining populations is the cultivating of the rice fields, often because of the injuries to the shell caused by the ploughs (MCCORD cited in RHODIN 1994). It is therefore extremely important to establish captive breeding programs for this species sooner rather than later. An international studbook has already been implemented for Chelodina mccordi (FONTIJNE 2001, 2002). Description and Size Chelodina mccordi is a medium-sized snake-necked turtle. The carapace is of greyish brown colour, the plastron is creamy white with dark patterns at the shield seams (see illustrations). The upper sides of head, neck and extremities are grey, the under-sides are coloured whitish. The appearance of these animals resembles Chelodina pritchardi and C. novaeguineae to which they are closely related, however the first marginal shield is narrower than in the other two species (RHODIN 1994). Hatchlings display an irregular black and yellow pattern, which fades with increasing age. The males have a longer and thicker tail. On average, females are obviously larger than males. Ten out of the 18 animals examined by RHODIN (1994) were found to be females. Their carapace lengths varied from 15.0 to 21.3 cm. The two females I currently keep measure 19.5 and 20.0 cm. One egg-laying female which is kept by HENNIG (in litt.) has a carapace length of 19.05 cm. ROEMPP (in litt.) possesses an old female of 23.0 cm. The five male specimens examined by RHODIN showed carapace lengths of between 15.05 and 16.25 cm. My two males currently have lengths of 15.5 and 17.0 cm. A sexually mature male of HENNIG (in litt.) currently has a carapace length of 15.2 cm. HELM (in litt.) observed that a female having hatched in 1994 laid her first clutch of eggs in 2001 and had a carapace length of 17.5 cm. The size of one of his males successfully mating for the first time measured 14.5 cm. Initial Stock I acquired my first five animals, which weighed between 414 and 695 g, on the 4 th June 2000. The carapace lengths varied between 14 and 18.5 cm. According to the previous keeper, these animals had hatched in 1994. I first kept this group in a tank of size 2.0 × 0.6 × 0.4 m (L × W × H). In this tank I had installed a sloping land section of 60 × 40 cm in a way that allowed the turtles to swim underneath. About one month after I obtained them I found they had laid six eggs, all of which were not fertile. Because of the fact that I had not observed any copulation or mating behaviour, I decided to examine my animals more closely and concluded that I had four males and one female. In order to get confirmation I visited a more experienced keeper of Chelodina mccordi who supported my assumption and I handed over one of my males to him. In November 2000 I had a chance to exchange two of my males for two females with a dealer. One of these females I passed on to a breeder and I finally arrived at my current stock of 2.2 Chelodina mccordi. Sex Carapace length Weight Carapace length Weight [cm] [g] [cm] [g] 1.0 Nov. 2000 14.5 420 Feb. 2003 15.5 526 1.0 16.0 550 17.0 649 0.1 18.5 770 19.5 1080 0.1 20.0 1020 20.0 1157 Tab. 1. Statistics of my breeding group. RADIATA 13 (2), 2004 11
