Wearing hard armor, with a mouth like an eagle, a slender tail ... Doesn't it feel a bit like a crocodile turtle? In fact, no, this is our native species of hawk-billed turtle, a national-level protected animal. Ms. Xia in Changsha also thought it was a crocodile turtle at first, and almost stewed it in soup. However, volunteers from the Changsha Wildlife Conservation Association informed that "this is a national first-class protected animal - hawk-billed turtle", and together with the volunteers, they found a reservoir suitable for the chickpear turtle to live in for release. Because the ultimate home of wild animals is still nature.
He is clad in hard armor, has a mouth like an eagle, and a slender tail
Flat-breasted turtle, common name: eagle-billed turtle, big-headed turtle, eagle turtle, etc. The dorsal carapace of adult turtles is about 12 to 18 cm long and oblong-oval. The shell of the turtle is flattened, the head and tail are long, and it cannot be retracted into the shell. Sexual maturity begins in about four years, and eggs are laid from April to October. Mainly distributed in the south of China, it is the most special kind of freshwater turtle in China, and it has been extremely rare in the wild. Listed on the Chinese Red List of Species: CR, CITES Appendix: I.
One. Basic Introduction:
Similar to the eagle: the mouth of the eagle-billed turtle is very distinctive, like a curved hook hanging upside down in the sky, similar to the eagle's beak; and the half-web between the toes is both conducive to land crawling and easy to swim in the water. Therefore, when the hawkfish swims, it soars like an eagle in the water; when lying still, if it is not carefully observed, it is often mistaken for a mountain eagle landing, so it is also called "eagle-billed turtle".
A hawk-billed turtle with a "hawk's beak"
Long dragon tail: the tail of the eagle-billed turtle is close to its own back armor length, some even exceed the length of its own back armor, the four major mythical beasts in China's history are dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, turtles, and the eagle-billed turtle embodies three forms. When crawling fast, it is as if the unicorn is running hard with the dragon's tail, so it is also called "dragon-tailed unicorn turtle".
Dragon-tailed unicorn turtle with a long "dragon's tail"
Crawling ability: It is a nocturnal amphibian turtle that lives mainly in the water and rests under the rocks of the stream during the day. Compared with other national turtles, the eagle-billed turtle has a fierce temperament and is extremely wild. Because of their sharp claws and powerful tails, they can crawl quickly and have a strong climbing ability, easily crossing obstacles in front of them.
Living habits: it inhabits dark and damp places such as mountain streams, rocky rocks, stone crevices, and caves. Prefer yin and fear of high temperature, suitable water temperature 20 - 25 ° C, temperature can not exceed 28 ° C. Carnivores, mainly small fish, shrimp, earthworms, frogs, tadpoles, snails.
Location distribution: The hawkfish is mainly distributed in Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian and Liangguang in China. It is mainly distributed in Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Among them, the hawkfish are classified as viet eagles and national eagles according to the region.
Two. Hawk-billed turtles are not friendly to newbies
First: high requirements for feeding conditions
Hawk-billed turtles prefer to forage in cool, clean stream water, spawn and breed in the sandy soils of the shore, and sometimes roost in trees, while survival rates are low in unclean water. And the hawk-billed turtle is afraid of heat, intolerant of hunger and so on. Therefore, if there is no good breeding conditions in artificial breeding, it is not good to raise. Therefore, Xianbei suggests that if you want to feed the chickpear turtles, it is best to understand it before purchasing it.
A hawk-billed turtle resting in the grass
Second: the more turtles that climb the mountains and mountains, the higher the mortality rate
In the more turtles climb mountains and mountains to China, problems such as rough roads can easily cause the appearance of sick turtles. The interests of "turtle dealers" will lead to the influx of some sick turtles into the market, which will lead to a high mortality rate of yue turtles.
1. The climate varies too much. Vietnam is located in the eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia, bordering China's Guangxi and Yunnan in the north and Laos and Cambodia in the west, belonging to the tropical monsoon climate, with an average annual humidity of 84%, long summer and short winter. The hawkfish living in Vietnam do not hibernate. Our country is located in the east of Asia, the west coast of the Pacific Ocean, China's climate is complex and diverse, there are temperate monsoon climate, subtropical monsoon climate, tropical monsoon climate, tropical rainforest climate, temperate continental climate and plateau mountain climate and other climate types. Temperature differences in our country have led to the fact that turtles in some areas need to hibernate to survive the winter.
2. Soil and water are not satisfied. The closest city in China to Vietnam is Pingxiang in Guangxi, but Pingxiang is also 160 kilometers from Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, not to mention Chinese mainland. At such a long distance, many people will have a certain degree of reaction, not to mention the little turtle.
3. Violent arrest and transportation. Because of the strict grasp of customs and the prohibition of alien organisms into China, exotic turtles are generally transported by car from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, through rugged mountain roads and long-term transportation, resulting in months of bumpy water shortage. Not to mention the method of putting the turtle in a foam box and then using an ice cap to take the turtle out of the province in order to ensure that it will not be inspected. Such a large temperature difference has led to an increase in the proportion of sick turtles and a large number of inflows into the market.
Summary: Raising hawkfish is too difficult for novices. Not only is the geographical span of the turtle too large, climate change is easy to lead to the circulation of diseased turtles in the market, but also because of the harshness of the eagle-billed turtle for the feeding environment.
The back of the hawk-billed turtle
Three. Turtle keeping small recommendations
The chickpear turtle, a Class II protected animal, belongs to the Chinese Red List of Species Endangered Species (EN) level, CITES Appendix: I. According to international conventions, our country has separate protection in the distribution area.
However, self-rearing is not illegal, provided that artificially bred populations cannot be harvested, sold or utilized in the wild. Xianbei here to help you summarize some of the "troubles" and solutions you will encounter when raising turtles, and you can discuss them together in the comment area.
Pick a turtle: Whether the turtle you pick is healthy or not almost determines whether you can feed it, which is why Xianbei has a lot of trouble with the survival of the turtle. When the eagle-billed turtle is healthy, its eyes will not be listless, but it will be watery, as if there is light in the eyes, the limbs are tight together, the tail is rolled together and very intolerant of hunger, you feed him to eat. So picking turtles is the best way to get a live feeding video!
After the turtle arrives home: After the turtle arrives, it is placed indoors for half an hour to adapt to the temperature difference, and then put into a container with water on the back, waiting for defecation or other dirty things to be discharged from the body, and after an hour, it can be placed in clean water.
Feeding: Turtle friends summed up a set of methods "spring and autumn about 5 days to feed once, this cycle feeding pulled out of the feces is relatively hard, two or three days a feeding in fact, food is not digested completely, and in the long run the turtle will be fat. In the summer, I personally often feed it only once every 10 days or so, and the less feeding is for the sake of the turtles. After the water temperature is over 32, many hawk-billed turtles do not eat, this time do not panic, this is a normal phenomenon, do not eat you rest, often observe the state of the turtle, as long as the limbs and tail are strong, chrysanthemums do not open on the fine, you can choose to feed it at night on rainy days. There are also some turtles that eat the same when they are hot, but be sure to reduce the amount of feeding. ”
Amount of food: When the turtle is hungry, it eats everything it swallows, and when it starts to bite and eat, it means that it is mostly full, at this time it can not be fed, and in the summer, it is kept at half of the usual feeding amount.
Summer: Summer is the peak of eagle beak death, and the main reasons are temperature and feeding. Temperature: Make the container larger, increase the water body, and deepen the water level, so that the water temperature will not be affected too much by the room temperature. Feed as above.
Hibernation: After the summer and before hibernation, turtles eat the most because they have to reserve fat for the winter. You can choose to feed diligently, once every 3-4 days. It is best not to feed the turtles during hibernation!
Once it is well raised in artificial breeding, there will be a certain chance of breeding green turtles. Jiangsu once had a record of a flat-breasted green turtle exporting $3,000.
Green turtle
The green turtle is a freshwater turtle with a green filamentous algae body on the back of the turtle. The green hairs on the carapace of the green hairy turtle are not inherent in themselves, but the turtle lives in the water with more basal algae for a long time, and its limbs cannot reach the back, cannot scratch the back, and its back carapace is easily contaminated with broken basal algae, coupled with the irradiation of the sun, it grows a thick green hair.
1. Because in the artificial breeding of green turtles, long-term non-feeding should be used to promote the germination of algae (green hair), once the turtle is hungry for a long time, it will die, and the intolerance of the turtle will make it more grumpy and desperately hit the glass
2. The ornamental value of the eagle-billed green turtle is higher than that of other green turtles. Because the green haired eagle's beak turtle head, the corner of the mouth, the tail, the limbs, the abdomen are covered with green hair, when wading in the water, it looks like a green dragon swinging its tail with its head held high, which is very ornamental.
Finally, I hope that everyone know more about the life habits of turtles before raising turtles, no matter where the origin of the hawk-billed turtle, compared to the ordinary such as the Brazilian crocodile turtle within the turtle feeding difficulty is much greater, buy turtles also recommend not to raise seedlings without certain feeding experience, try to raise more than three or two turtles, easier to raise, stronger resistance, seedlings are relatively fragile a lot. Every turtle should be well-bred, because life is not easy to come by, please cherish.