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HERPETOCULTURE

HERPETOCULTURE NOTES
TESTUDINES TURTLES & TORTOISES
PYXIS ARACHNOIDES ARACHNOIDES (Spider Tortoise).
DRINKING BEHAVIOR. Animals from arid or seasonally dry
habitats often have unique adaptations for capturing water from
rare or unpredictable rainfall events (Costa 1995. Behavioural
Adaptations of Desert Animals. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. 198 pp.).
Water-capture behaviors have been described for certain aridland tortoises of the genera Psammobates and Kinixys, which
involved elevating the rear part of the carapace by extending the
hind legs while splaying the forelimbs forward, allowing water to
flow down the gutter formed from the flared marginal scutes
and along the forelimbs to the mouth (Auffenberg 1963. Anim.
Behav. 11:7273).
I observed a very different drinking posture and behavior
in 137 wild-caught, confiscated Pyxis a. arachnoides in Madagascar. The tortoises were being temporarily housed in Antananarivo after the confiscation of an illicit smuggling attempt,
apparently to get them out of the country. Their general health
was to be monitored before being transported to a facility nearer
to their native range in preparation for repatriation. When being rehydrated via pipette from overhead to simulate rainfall, the
tortoises assumed an unusual posture. Once contacted by water
droplets, tortoises went from fully withdrawn into the shell to
having limbs extended and head fully extended upward. Front
limbs were extended downward while rear limbs were splayed
and slightly bent so that the tortoises anterior was higher than
the posterior. Head and neck were extended upward or backwards over the carapace, and the tortoise would take in the water
through both nares and mouth; swallowing was presumed due
to visible gular undulation. Each tortoise pipetted assumed this
posture, and several held it for more than 30 minutes, regardless
of continued pipetting. A similar posture has been observed in
another, closely-related Malagasy tortoise species (Astrochelys
radiata [Radiated Tortoise]) during actual and simulated rainfall (pers. obs.), however it has not been linked to drinking. This
is apparently the first report of this unique water gathering and
drinking behavior in Pyxis, a critically endangered taxon (IUCN
2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2.
<www.iucnredlist.org>).
I thank Edward E. Louis of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, the Turtle Survival Alliance, and the Turtle Conservation
Fund for funding and facilitating my chelonian research in Madagascar, and Ryan C. J. Walker for his assistance and support. I
also thank James H. Harding for careful review and edits.
ANDREA F. CURRYLOW, 7225 Cristobal Avenue, Atascadero, California 93422-5134, USA; e-mail: A.Currylow@gmail.com.

STIGMOCHELYS PARDALIS (Leopard Tortoise). BEHAVIOR.

These observations involve a pair of captive-bred adult Stigmochelys pardalis that live in an enclosed garden near the Gulf of
Thailand (where is the Gulf of Thailandin the Hup Kapong subdistrict,Cha Am, Petchaburi Province, Thailand (12.760642N,
99.912908E). This pair has produced several clutches of hatchlings. The hatchlings are allowed to graze during the day in
screen-protected pens while the adults are left free to roam in
the enclosed garden. Normally therefore there is no contact between adults and juveniles.

Under a full moon on New Years Eve 2011 the female was observed to lay eggs in a protected hilly area of the garden. One
morning after a night of heavy rain, four hatchlings were found
in the garden, approximately five months after oviposition. At
about one week of age, the hatchlings were placed close to the
mother and father. There were clearly audible vocalizations
from the mother, directed toward the juveniles, and also from
the juveniles to the mother. The calls were repeated low-pitched
cooing sounds whose pitch rose and then fell and lasted between 12 seconds. Vocalizations began within a minute of the
hatchlings being placed closed to the mother and continued for
about 5 min. For the next several hours, the four hatchlings and
the mother walked together in close proximity in the garden,
stopping often to graze. The mother appeared almost hyperactive and was clearly intensely interested in the juveniles. Two
days later the juveniles were again placed close to the mother.
Again, there were bi-directional vocalizations as previously described and the five animals moved as a group through the garden. On subsequent trials, however, no additional vocalizations
were heard when the juveniles were placed close to the mother,
although occasionally one or two of the juveniles stayed close to
the mother for several hours.
Acoustic vocalizations are well known between male and female Stigmochelys pardalis during courtship and mating. Vocalizations in turtles unrelated to mating have not often been
reported. Recently, an underwater acoustic repertoire of the
Long-necked Turtle, Chelodina oblonga, was reported (Giles et
al. 2009. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 126:434443). However, to my knowledge, communication between mother and juvenile tortoises has
not been previously observed. There is no way of knowing, from
these observations, whether the female tortoise recognized the
hatchlings as her own offspring, or whether she would react the
same to any conspecific hatchlings. I hope to record these vocalizations when new hatchlings next appear. Meanwhile though,
this anecdotal observation serves to emphasize how much social
behavior and the part played by vocalizations remains to be described in tortoises.
GEORGE WATT, Riverine Place # 2202, 9/260 Phibulsongkhram Road,
Nonthaburi 11000, Thailand; e-mail: gwattth@yahoo.com.

TOMISTOMA SCHLEGELII (False Gharial). DIET. Few published

observations are available on the diet, feeding, or predatory behavior of Tomistoma schlegelii, a little-known and threatened
Southeast Asian crocodilian (Bezuijen et al. 2010. In S. C. Manolis and C. Stevenson [eds.], Crocodiles: Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan, 3rd ed., pp. 133138. Crocodile Specialist
Group, Darwin). Mller (1838. Waarnemingen over de Indische
Krokodillen en Beschrijving van Eene Nieuwe Soort. Tijdschrift
voor Natuurlijke Geschiedenis en Physiologie 5:6187) stated the
diet of T. schlegelii included fish, monitor lizards (Varanus spp.),
water birds, and mammals. Predation of at least two wild primate species by T. schlegelii has been documented by direct observation in the wild and/or through stomach content analysis
of wild specimens (Galdikas 1985. Primates 26[4]:495496; Galdikas and Yeager 1984. Amer. J. Primatol. 6:4951; Rachawan and
Brend 2009. CSG Newsletter 28[1]:911). Stomach contents of
juvenile wild T. schlegelii included shrimp (Bezuijen et al. 1998).
There is a single confirmed report of predation on Homo sapiens

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PHOTO BY MITTAL GALA

minutes the male emerged without the turtle in his mouth. It

is not known whether the turtle was swallowed or dropped, although T. schlegelii has been observed to swallow prey underwater (Brueggen 2003. CSG Newsletter 22[1]:21).
Recent information suggests T. schlegelii has a broad diet.
The distribution of M. trijuga does not overlap with T. schlegelli,
(Das and Bhupathy 2009. In Rodin et al. [eds.], Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist
Group, pp. 038.1038.9. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5),
so it is unlikely that M. trijuga is a natural prey species in the
wild. However, the present observations indicate that turtles are
likely to be natural prey for wild T. schlegelii.
GAYATHRI SELVARAJ, Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for
Herpetology, Post Bag No 4, Mamallapuram, 603104, India; e-mail: gayathri@madras crocodilebank.org.
Fig. 1. Captive male Tomistoma schlegelii with an adult Melanochelys
trijuga that it captured on land, attempting to break the turtles carapace after entering the water.

by a T. schlegelii from Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia

(Rachawan and Brend 2009. CSG Newsletter 28[1]:911). Based
on the distinctive narrow snout, some early reports stated that
T. schlegelii is predominantly piscivorous (Neill 1971. The Last of
the Ruling Reptiles: Alligators, Crocodiles, and Their Kin. Columbia University Press, New York. 486 pp.; Campbell and Winterbotham 1985. Jaws, Too! The Natural History of Crocodilians with
Emphasis on Sanibel Islands Alligators. Sutherland Publishing,
Ft. Myers, Florida. 267 pp.; Guggisberg 1972. Crocodiles: Their
Natural History, Folklore and Conservation. Stackpole Books,
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. 195 pp.). Here I report on the first observation of predation on an Indian Pond turtle (Melanochelys
trijuga) by a captive T. schlegelii.
Two captive T. schlegelii (a male, 3.8 m total length [TL] and
female, 2.8 m TL) housed at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust
and Centre for Herpetology, India, are fed fish, whole chicken,
and the occasional Lesser Bandicoot Rat (Bandicota bengalensis). The enclosure also houses several M. trijuga, which are successfully breeding within the enclosure. In September 2011, two
separate incidents of predation on these turtles, by the male and
female T. schlegelii, were observed.
In the first incident (15 Sept 2011, 1200 h), the female T.
schlegelii caught a juvenile M. trijuga (straight carapace length
[SCL] visually estimated to be 125 mm) in the pond, and held in
its jaws for approximately 20 minutes, repeatedly cracking the
carapace in many points before swallowing it whole. In the second incident (29 Sept 2011, 1200 h), the male caught a turtle (SCL
visually estimated to be 250 mm) on land then entered the water,
and alternately circled the pond and submerged and emerged,
bubbling and hissing, with the (now dead) turtle in its jaws (Fig.
1). It repeatedly attempted to crack the carapace. After several

SQUAMATA SNAKES
AGKISTRODON TAYLORI (Taylors Cantil). LONGEVITY. An
adult male Agkistrodon taylori was confiscated by UK wildlife authorities in February 1995 and donated to the collection at West
Midland Safari Park (WMSP), Worcestershire, England. Agkistrodon taylori exhibits both sexual and ontogenetic dichromatism
(Burchfield 1982. J. Herpetol. 16[4]:376282) which clearly identified this specimen as an adult male upon arrival. After suitable
quarantine, it was introduced to a female of the same species
that had been in the collection since 1994. After mating in April
1996 without issue, the pair mated again on 14 March 1997, and
were then separated. The female gave birth to nine neonates after 199 days, on 9 September, the first UK captive breeding of
the species (OShea 1998. The Herptile 23[1]:1619) and died a
few years later, but the male remained in the off-show collection
until 4 July 2012 when it was euthanized on health grounds, after
17 yr, 5 mo in captivity at WMSP.
Because this snake was an adult when it arrived, and the earliest
the related A. bilineatus (Mexican Cantil) reaches sexual maturity
is at 30 months (Peters 1979. Internatl. Zoo Yearbk. 19:100101),
a conservative estimate for this specimens individuals total age
could be 19 yr, 11 mo. The previous longevity record for this species is 15 yr, 7 mo, 13 d, for a male at the Houston Zoo, Houston,
Texas, USA (Snider and Bowler 1992. Longevity of Reptiles and
Amphibians in North American Collections. SSAR Herpetol. Circ.
21:140), while a lifespan of 24 yr, 4 mo, 19 d is documented for
a A. bilineatus at the Instituto Historia Natural, Chiapas, Mexico
(ibid). The North American members of the genus achieve similar longevities in captivity (A. contortrix 29 yr, 10 mo; A. piscivorus
24 yr, 6 mo; Snider and Bowler, op. cit.).
MARK OSHEA (e-mail: mark.oshea@wmsp.co.uk), STEVE SLATER (email: steve.slater@wmsp.co.uk), and JAMIE WOOD (e-mail: jamie.wood@
wmsp.co.uk), Mark OSheas Reptile World, Discovery Trail, West Midland
Safari Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 1LF, United Kingdom.

Herpetological Review 43(4), 2012