Amboina Box Turtle

About the Amboina Box Turtle

The Amboina box turtle or Southeast Asian box turtle (Cuora amboinensis) is a species of Asian box turtle widely distributed across Southeast Asia. It is native to the Asian mainland from northeast India, through Bangladesh, Burma and Thailand, across Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. It is also found on the archipelagos of Indonesia and the Philippines.

The type locality is "Amboine" (or "Amboina") Island, today Ambon Island in Indonesia. These turtles have blackish-brown to olive-brown shells that are not as ornate as many other box turtles. All have a blackish olive head with three yellow stripes on the side. They are relatively small turtles, ranging in length between 200-250mm depending on subspecies and sex. Females are slightly larger than males. The male can be identified by the slightly concave shape to its plastron. There is no specific pattern to what the underbellies may look like, for either sex. Life expectancy is 25–30 years. The only true way of telling age is to guess by the texture of the shell, as growth rings form irregularly.

The Amboina box turtle is widely distributed across Southeast Asia. Its range extends... Wikipedia →