Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I currently live in Okinawa Japan; I have read a lot about this species and have found conflicting articles about them being on this island. I would like to go herping with them being my focus of the trip but I don’t want to end up looking for something that’s not there. If anyone as any information on this topic I would appreciate your help. If there are still conflicting ideas I will just go looking for them anyway and find out for sure. Thank you in advance.

Jake

In Okinawa your going to find Geoemyda japonica. More colorful then spengleri. It's a national treasure in Japan, so no touching at all. Pictures are ok though. You will also be able to find a subspecie of Chinese box turtle there, Cistoclemmys flavomarginata evelynae.

Interestingly, G. japonica was long considered a subspecies of G. spengleri; this is where the literature confusion would have originated.

You are lucky to be present on such a beautiful island as Okinawa, as it is not just herps that have some interesting endemics (go find a very rare, primitive rabbit). The Cuora flavomarginata subspecific designation for animals on Okinawa has been contested on behalf of the description relying on arguable characteristics. Outside of a few scute measurements, they're pretty much the same as the ones on the Chinese mainland.

Indeed, G. japonica is protected in full, so as the other post already read, hands off. Should you ever live (again?) in the U.S., perhaps you could splurge a couple thousand to buy one or two, heh. If indeed you find this species or any other chelonian of interest, it would be most wonderful to post some pictures on here, as in-the-wild photos of most lower archipelago species are lacking outside of Japanese publications. Thanks.

Thank you for the replies, and the information and clearing up the confusion. As soon as we have some descent weather on the weekend I will go out on my search and I will post pictures of any herps I find.

You can find G. japonica on several of the Ryuku Islands, including Okinawa. You can also find Cuora flavomarginata and a hybrid between these two species. Surprisingly, the hybrid is even more colorful than G. japonica.
Best wishes,
Michael
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Michael
http://turtletracker.com