ForumIAS announcing GS Foundation Program for UPSC CSE 2025-26 from 19 April. Click Here for more information.
ForumIAS Answer Writing Focus Group (AWFG) for Mains 2024 commencing from 24th June 2024. The Entrance Test for the program will be held on 28th April 2024 at 9 AM. To know more about the program visit: https://forumias.com/blog/awfg2024
Source-This post on Cantor’s Giant Softshell Turtle has been created based on the article “First-ever nesting report of incredibly rare giant softshell turtle” published in ” PHY.ORG” on 20 February 2024.
Why in the news?
Conservationists from the University of Portsmouth have recently uncovered the nesting site of the “secretive” Cantor’s giant softshell turtle on the banks of the Chandragiri River in Kerala.
About Cantor’s Giant Softshell Turtle
| Aspect | Details |
| Description | It is also known as the Asian giant softshell turtle and the frog-faced softshell turtle. |
| Habitat | They inhabit inland, slow-moving, freshwater rivers, lakes, streams, and estuaries |
| Distribution | It is found in eastern and southern India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, eastern and southern China. |
| Characteristics | 1) Nature-It is a species known for its rarity and secretive nature. 2) It spends most of its life buried and motionless, with only their eyes and mouth protruding from the sand. 3) Diet-These turtles are primarily carnivores (piscivores) feeding on fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. |
| Conservation status | IUCN: Critically endangered CITES: Appendix II Wildlife Protection Act,1972 : Schedule I |
| Threats | 1) Habitat destruction. 2) They are heavily harvested by locals for meat. |
Read more about-Various types of turtles in India.
UPSC Syllabus-Environment (Species in news)
