Arakan Forest Turtle

The critically endangered Arakan Forest Turtle was only recently discovered to live in Bangladesh. Since its discovery in 1875, this shy turtle was only thought to live in the bamboo forests of northwest Myanmar, but that changed in 2013. Caesar Rahman, CEO of the Creative Conservation Alliance, went down on an exploratory journey into the Chittagong Hill Tracts to discover which animal species still persist in these remote jungles, less impacted by human activities. It wasn't long before several old shells were presented to Caesar by traditional hunters. He struck gold!

This little turtle, reaching a maximum length of only 26cm, is locally called the “lazy turtle” due to its reclusive habit of sleeping away the dry season in dense thickets of bamboo. As soon as the wet season starts though, these turtles are anything but lazy, climbing the steepest of slopes in search of an array of food items including dropped fruit, fresh plant material, bugs, and historically even rhinoceros poop – an interesting inter-species relationship that sadly can no longer happen as we have killed the last rhino in the area over a hundred years ago.

From its discovery in 1875, it was only seen a handful of times and then between 1908 and 1994 it went missing. No one knew if it was extinct or if it's location was mistaken and it never existed at all in the Arakan Hills. Then almost 90 years later, Steven Platt - a renowned turtle researcher, discovered the species being sold in a wildlife market in Myanmar. It wasn't until 2000 though that he was able to mount a successful expedition into the central Rakhine and turned up a single Arakan Forest Turtle in the wild, with the help of a hunting dog.

An interesting history for an equally interesting species. They are now being bred in an assurance colony in Gazipur Safari Park by the CCA, with the help of the Bangladesh Forest Department, with hopes of releasing them back in the wild when the Sangu Reserve Forest is safe again.

Photo: Scott Trageser/Nature Stills

Text: Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA)