[News] A rare, golden turtle — first of its kind — discovered in Nepal

[Alcooliks ;x]

After news of the existence of a yellow turtle in India's eastern state of Odisha went viral this past July, Nepalis wanted to remind the world that they made a similar discovery first — on April 14, 2018, to be exact — when a rare, golden turtle  — but a different species — was found for the first time in southeastern Nepal’s Dhanushadham municipality.

According to a research paper by Kamal Devkota, Dev Narayan Mandal and Hinrich Kaiser, which was published in the journal Herpetology Notes, the turtle was released into its natural habitat after pictures were taken as proof.

In an email interview with Global Voices, Devkota explained:

Our team member, Chandradeep Sada, rescued this rare golden turtle from Dhanushadham Municipality, Nepal on April 14, 2018. Later, Dev Narayan Mandal identified it as an Indian flapshell turtle [scientific name Lissemys punctata]. We further researched it and found that the colour aberrations are quite rare in nature. The lack of body pigmentation made the turtle appear golden coloured, with only the eyes showing a dark pigmentation.

This is the first chromatic leucism in L. punctata in Nepal, which is the first for the northern subspecies of L. punctata and the fifth documented observation in the species. That's why it is very important for conservationists and researchers.