Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854)

Hakim, Jonathan, Trageser, Scott J., Ghose, Animesh, Rashid, Sheikh Muhammad Abdur & Rahman, Shahriar Caesar, 2020, Amphibians and reptiles from Lawachara National Park in Bangladesh, Check List 16 (5), pp. 1239-1268 : 1250

Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854)

Material examined. BANGLADESH • 1 adult; Syl- het Division, Moulvibazar District , Kamalganj Upazila, LNP, near Baghmara village; 24°20.56′N, 091°48.64′E; 18 Jun. 2015; photo voucher ZRC ( IMG) 2.359 .

Identification. Unique in the region, I. elongata is a yellowish-brown tortoise of moderate size (our specimens up to 33 cm long) with a domed carapace and pinkishred markings on the face during breeding season ( Ihlow et al. 2016).

Habitat. Radio-tracked tortoises were found to utilize both mature and degraded forest.

Remarks. Sightings of this species were rare in LNP due to pressure from local hunters for domestic consumption. Villagers in LNP told us that in the 1990s hunters could find seven or eight of these tortoises in a single day, while now they go months without seeing one. Due to an educational outreach project undertaken by the Creative Conservation Alliance, two tortoises were brought to our staff by villagers. These then had radio-transmitters af- fixed to their shells and were released back into the wild and tracked for the next year. Eight non-resident tor- toises, rescued from hunters in Bandarban District, were also affixed with transmitters and released into LNP as a pilot relocation study. Additional data from these radiotracking studies will be published in an upcoming paper.

Squamata

Gekkonidae