Bourret's box turtle

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Bourret's box turtle
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Family:	Geoemydidae
Genus:	Cuora
Species:	C. bourreti
Binomial name
Cuora bourreti Obst & Reimann, 1994[3]
Synonyms[4]
Cuora galbinifrons bourreti Obst & Reimann, 1994 Cistoclemmys galbinifrons bourreti — Bour, 2002 Cuora bourreti — B. Stuart & Parham, 2004 Cistoclemmys bourreti — Vetter, 2006

Bourret's box turtle (Cuora bourreti),^[3] also known commonly as the central Vietnamese flowerback box turtle and the Indochinese box turtle, is a species of turtle in the family Geoemydidae. The species is endemic to Southeast Asia.

C. bourreti is found in central Vietnam and adjacent Laos.^[1][5]

The preferred natural habitat of C. bourreti is forest, at altitudes of 300–1,800 m (980–5,910 ft).^[1]

C. bourreti may attain a straight-line carapace length of 20 cm (7.9 in). Adult females and adult males are about the same size. Hatchlings have a straight-line carapace length of 4.5–5.0 cm (1.8–2.0 in).^[1]

Although Stuart and Parham (2004) argued that C. bourreti was quite distinct, possibly enough to justify its elevation to a full species, osteologic studies^[4] have shown that it probably better remains as a subspecies of C. galbinifrons. This is further substantiated by the finding of intergradation zones in north-central Vietnam, where hybrid populations of C. g. galbinifrons and C. g. bourreti are known to exist.^[4]

C. bourreti is named in honor of French herpetologist René Léon Bourret.^[6]

The Vietnamese press has reported successful breeding of C. bourreti at a turtle farm in Dak Lak, Vietnam by a pharmacist who studied in France.^{[citation needed]}

Two Bourret's box turtles hatched at the National Zoo in the United States on 12 June 2017.^[7]

• Fritz U, Petzold A, Auer M (2006). "Osteology in the Cuora galbinifrons complex suggests conspecifity of C. bourreti and C. galbinifrons, with notes on shell osteology and phalangeal formulae within the Geoemydidae". Amphibia- Reptilia 27 (2): 195–205.
• Fritz U, Ziegler T, Herrmann H-W, Lehr E (2002). "Intergradation between subspecies of Cuora galbinifrons Bourret, 1939 and Pyxidea mouhotii (Gray, 1862) in southern North Vietnam". Faunistiche Abhandlungen Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden 23 (3): 59–74.
• Obst FJ, Reimann M (1994). "Bemerkenswerte Variabilität bei Cuora galbinifrons Bourret, 1939, mit Beschreibung einer neuen geographischen Unterart: Cuora galbinifrons bourreti subsp. nov." Zoologische Abhandlungen, Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden 48: 125–138. (Cuora galbinifrons bourreti, new subspecies). (in German).
• Stuart BL, Parham JF (2004). "Molecular phylogeny of the critically endangered Indochinese box turtle (Cuora galbinifrons)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 31: 164–177. (Cuora bourreti, new status).

• "Cuora galbinifrons ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 19 July 2008.