Least ConcernPlum-throated Cotinga
Cotinga maynana
One of the 41 turtles and tortoises on WAnimals
Reptiles · Testudines · Podocnemididae
Podocnemis expansa
At extremely high risk of imminent extinction in the wild.
The giant South American river turtle, or arrau turtle, is the largest freshwater turtle in the Americas and nests in mass arrivals on the sandbanks that emerge in the dry season. At the beginning of the nineteenth century Humboldt described concentrations of hundreds of thousands of females on the Orinoco; the industrial collection of eggs to extract oil put an end to almost all that abundance within a few decades.
Weight
25 kg – 90 kg
Size
60 cm – 1.1 m
Life expectancy
70 years
Diet
Herbivore
Feeds mainly on plants.
Activity
Diurnal
Active mainly during the day.
Social structure
Colony
Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.
Sighting difficulty
Very hard
Sources consulted: https://www.iucnredlist.org/ | https://animaldiversity.org/ | https://es.wikipedia.org/
Best time: From December to March on the beaches of the Orinoco and the Amazon, during the dry season, when thousands of females nest at once.
The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.
Parks and dive sites where this species has been documented.
Other species in the catalogue with the most in common with Giant South American River Turtle — same habitat, park, country, tags or family.
The giant south american river turtle is classified as critically endangered. Organisations such as the IUCN, WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society work specifically on its conservation and that of its habitat; looking into their programmes is a good starting point if you want to get involved.
It's documented in 8 protected areas — one reason why protecting these places matters for its conservation.
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