On the Distribution of Pelochelys cantorii on Borneo
ABSTRACT
Historical records for Pelochelys cantorii from Borneo are reviewed, and the first record of the species from Sabah is described.
The trionychid turtle, Pelochelys cantorii Gray, 1864, has a wide distribution, from the east and west coasts of India and coastal Bangladesh, through Myanmar, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, Vietnam, southern China, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Philippines (Das 1995; Moll and Vijaya 1986; Nguyen and Ho 1996; Cox et al. 1998; Zhang et al. 1998; Iskandar 2000). The Javanese record of this species, from Tanjung Priok by Ouwens (1914) and de Rooij (1915), was shown to be based on a misidentified specimen of Chitra chitra by Iskandar (2004b), and the species is consequently removed from the fauna of Java. Many of the authors, up to the end of the 20th Century, referred to this species as Pelochelys bibroni (Owen 1853), which was restricted to New Guinea by Webb (1995, 2003).
Although this species is known from Borneo (e.g., Lim and Das 1999), only 3 records exist. One of these is “Koelei” (interpreted as Koeling by Iverson, pers. comm., corresponding with Kuling, 01°50′S, 112°55′E, Kalimantan Tengah Province), as cited in Boulenger (1889: 263, as Pelochelys cantoris), Bartlett (1894), and de Rooij (1915: 332, also cited by Siebenrock 1909, and mapped by Iverson 1992). The spelling Koelei is here considered an error for Koetei, a colonial Dutch version of the locality name Kutai (see below). In the distribution of the species, de Rooij (1915: 332) included “Koti” (equivalent to Kutai, 00°35′S, 117°17′E, Kalimantan Timur Province) within the Indonesian part of Borneo. The former locality is apparently based on a skeletonized specimen, BMNH 80.9.25.6, which would have been examined by de Rooij during the preparation of her monograph on the Indo-Australian reptile fauna. It was collected by the Norwegian explorer, Carl Bock (1849–1932), who did indeed spend time at Kutai, then an independent Malay kingdom under Dutch protection (Reese 1995) and described as “ . . . a country enjoying the worst repute among the semi-independent States” (Bock 1881). Bock is not known to have collected in Kalimantan Tengah (= Central Kalimantan).
Two more recent localities for P. cantorii from Borneo are in the literature. The first is from Sungei Berau (coordinates at mouth: 01°45′N, 117°30′E), also in Kalimantan Timur Province, cited by Iskandar (2000: 90), about 40 km to the north of the Kutai record. The second locality is Maruwai (00°34′S, 114°44′E), Kalimantan Tengah Province, and is based on a carapace (verified by ID) collected by Robert Butler Stuebing, and now accessioned with the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Cibinong, Indonesia. This record has been cited by Iskandar (2004a).
We report here a fourth record of P. cantorii from Borneo, a specimen from Kampung Marak Parak (06°19′N, 116°44′E; 152 m elevation), Kota Marudu District, at the edge of Gunung Kinabalu National Park, Sabah, East Malaysia (Fig. 1). The specimen was collected at the junction of Sungei Kinarom and Sungei Serimsim, within a lowland rainforest, on 30 August 2001, and accessioned with the Sabah Parks Zoological Museum, SP(P)285. The specimen measured 644 mm in curved carapace length, 538 mm in curved carapace width, and weighed 23.0 kg in life.
Citation: Chelonian Conservation and Biology 5, 2; 10.2744/1071-8443(2006)5[323:OTDOPC]2.0.CO;2
This record represents the first published record of P. cantorii for Sabah, and the fourth for Borneo (Fig. 2). The Sabah locality is 32 km from the coast, in a nontidal section of the river, ca. 700 km north-northwest of Kutai and ca. 660 km north-northwest of the mouth of Sungei Berau.
Citation: Chelonian Conservation and Biology 5, 2; 10.2744/1071-8443(2006)5[323:OTDOPC]2.0.CO;2
Adult P. cantorii from Kampung Marak Parak, Kinabalu National Park, Sabah, East Malaysia (Borneo).
Map of Borneo, showing localities for P. cantorii. See text for details. References: 1 = Kutai, Kalimantan Timur Province, Indonesia; 2 = Sungei Berau, Kalimantan Timur Province, Indonesia; 3 = Marak Parak, Sabah, Malaysia; and 4 = Maruwai, Kalimantan Tengah Province.
