Pan’s Box Turtle

1 Overview

Pan’s Box Turtle is a turtle species endemic to China, scarce in number and listed as a Class II nationally protected animal. It occasionally appears in trade, but volumes are low and prices high — a single turtle can reach tens of thousands of yuan. Some of this is speculation, but it reflects genuine market scarcity.

Chinese Name: Pan’s Box Turtle (潘氏闭壳龟)

Chinese Alias: 闭壳龟 (Box turtle)

English Name: Pan’s Box Turtle

Binomial: Cuora pani

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Subphylum: Vertebrata

Class: Reptilia

Order: Testudines

Suborder: Cryptodira (note: source mislabeled this as Pleurodira)

Family: Geoemydidae

Subfamily: Geoemydinae

Genus: Cuora

Species: Cuora pani

Distribution: Central China — Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Hubei provinces (the source’s ‘Shanxi’ is a typo for Shaanxi). It lives in mountain streams and rock crevices in hilly areas.

2 Physical Characteristics

It is a small aquatic turtle; the adult carapace is not large and it is often found near rice paddies. From the moment the species was described its numbers have been low. Here are its identifying features.

The carapace length is about 120 mm in males and 115 mm in females. The carapace is flattened with an obscure mid-line keel; the nuchal scute is small. The head is pale yellow, with a hooked upper jaw and two yellow-brown stripes behind the eyes. The carapace is low and flat, pale brown, with a distinct keel, and its front and rear margins are not serrated. The plastron is very flat and pale yellow, with broad black stripes where the scutes meet.

The carapace and plastron, and the pectoral and abdominal scutes, are connected by cartilage ligaments. The limbs are brown, flattened, unpatterned, with well-developed webbing between the toes. The tail is short and conical. The front of the plastron is rounded and the rear has a notch; connected to the carapace by a ligament, with a hinge between the pectoral and abdominal scutes, the front and rear halves of the plastron can close completely against the carapace.

Sexing: females have a rounder snout, a flat central plastron, and a cloaca closer to the plastron edge; males have a sharper snout, a slightly concave central plastron, a cloaca farther from the edge, and a hemipenis.

3 Husbandry

Care focuses on two things: enclosure setup, and food selection and feeding method. Master these two and Pan’s Box Turtle is not a difficult species.

New cement ponds must be de-alkalized first: cement’s strong alkalinity irritates the eyes, mouth, and skin and causes inflammation. Before adding turtles, soak the pond 1–2 days with superphosphate (about 1 kg per cubic meter), or scrub the cement surfaces with 10% acetic acid to neutralize alkalinity, then fill and soak several days and rinse with clean water.

Keep the water’s dissolved oxygen high, clarity over 30 cm, pH 7–8, using slight flow to keep it clean and fresh. In spring keep water shallow; in summer deepen it to cool. Change water by draining one-third to one-half of the bottom dirty water and refilling equal clean water. Disinfect the pond regularly — monthly in spring/autumn, weekly in summer — with bleaching powder at 2–3 mg/L or 1% potassium permanganate solution.

Feed small fish, shrimp, snails, shellfish, aquatic insects, livestock/poultry liver, earthworms, etc. In cold or overcast weather feed once daily at 7–8 a.m.; in hot or clear weather feed twice (7–8 a.m. and 6–7 p.m.). Adjust amount by appetite, generally 5–7% of total weight, feeding until all is eaten. Fresh, palatable, nutritious, non-moldy feed; follow the ‘four fixed’ rule: fixed location, time, amount, quality. Clean the feeding platform daily. Stocking density about 10 adults per square meter. Control predators: weasels, ants, rats, cats, snakes.

4 Habitat and Distribution

Scarce in number, the species has received some protection since discovery. The captive environment should resemble the wild; a semi-aquatic turtle setup is recommended.

Distribution: mainly the central Chinese provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Hubei, in a few discontinuous populations, often seen in ditches beside rice paddies. It is a Chinese endemic. In May 2004 a living female Yunnan box turtle was found in Sichuan; in June 2005 a male was found in Yunnan; around 2010 six wild Pan’s Box Turtles were found in Xinyang, Henan — the richest wild find in China by end of 2010.

Build the pond in a safe, quiet, clear-water, well-lit, shaded spot, ideally indoors. The site must hold water; enclose with brick/stone walls and cover the top with netting. Each pond 4–20 m², water depth 40–80 cm, as a land-water pond giving a good ecological environment. Land-to-water ratio 1:2, land 0.2–0.5 m above water at a 30° slope; set a nesting area on land and plant vines; stock a few small fish/shrimp and water lettuce.

5 Feeding

An omnivore, Pan’s Box Turtle generally prefers animal foods. In captivity pay attention both to food freshness and to water-quality changes caused by feeding.

Food choices: small fish, shrimp, snails, shellfish, aquatic insects, livestock/poultry liver, earthworms. In cold or overcast weather feed once at 7–8 a.m.; in hot or clear weather feed twice. Amount 5–7% of body weight, fed until eaten. Fresh, palatable, nutritious, non-moldy feed; follow the ‘four fixed’ rule. Clean the platform daily; density about 10 per m²; control predators.

By its habits and temperature/food needs it is generally easy to keep. It feeds normally at 20°C, ideally 22–30°C, stops or eats less around 15°C, and hibernates below 10°C. During hibernation, move it indoors; with ambient temperature above 0°C it overwinters safely.