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There is always ademand for easy-to-keep, attractive, lively turtles that don’t grow too large.And theRedbellied
Shortneck Turtle is just the animal to provide all these attributes. The tongue-twister of a popular name is
undoubtedly themost complicated thingabout this turtle!
TheRedbelliedShortneckTurtle
(
Emydurasubglobosa
)
- adreamof anaquatic turtle
byChristophFritz,www.reptilia24.com
hese attractive turtles, in whichmales
attainacarapace lengthof some20cm
and femalesagood25cm,havebeen in the
hobby since the late1970s.Thepastmaster
of the terrarium hobby, Wilhelm
Klingelhöffer,maydidn’tmentionthematall
inhisstandardworkTerrarienkunde in1959,
but in 1984Obst, Richter & Jacobwrote in
their classic Lexikon der Terraristik und
Herpetologie that the species had been
T
bred for generations andwas suitableeven
forbeginners.Whatachange inthespaceof
just 20 years or so! Until the 1990s captive-
bred Emydura subglobosa were available
everywhere, but then things all went quiet
as faras thespecieswasconcerned.
Not until around 10 years ago did the
species resurface and since then it has
enjoyedconstantly increasingpopularity.
Confusednomenclature
Initially the Redbellied Shortneck Turtle
was known in the hobby under the name
Emydura albertisii
. This species was
described in 1888 by Boulenger, who
regarded it as distinct from
E. subglobosa
.
But it was subsequently realized that the
two specieswereoneand thesameand so
E. albertisii
became a junior synonym of
E.
subglobosa
, which had been described
Turtles
Theattractive red color of the shell is retained life-long.
Photo:FrankSchäfer
