The freshwater chelonians, terrapins in English usage and turtles in American, of China and south-east Asia generally are in big trouble. Extensive trade for the human food and ‘medicine’ markets, the pet market, as well as loss of habitat have brought many to the status of ‘Endangered’.
As a result of reading a paper on one of the species in Vietnam I found a video taken recently in Hong Kong of Beale’s Terrapin, Sacalia bealei, where they are very rare and strictly protected. They are nocturnal, occurring in and around mountain streams. The location of sightings is being kept secret because it is thought poaching may still be going on.
Beale’s Terrapin was first described and named by John Edward Gray at the British Museum in 1831. Of the members of the Beale family who worked in India and China, the most likely candidate for the eponym is Thomas Beale (ca 1775-1841) a wealthy merchant in Macau who kept a large collection of exotic birds, including a bird-of-paradise, at his mansion. He with his partners in Magniac & Co (which morphed into the mighty hong, Jardine, Matheson & Co) dealt in opium, cotton and tea. For a time he was immensely wealthy but after dealing in opium futures and investing in some dodgy businesses in Brazil he ended up owing the East India Company the equivalent of many millions of pounds. His body was found washed ashore several weeks after he disappeared from his house.
John Reeves (1774-1856) sent the specimens back to London. He was working largely in Macau as Inspector of Tea for the East India Company. Gray named Reeves’s Terrapin, Chinemy reevesi, after him, also in the 1831 publication.
The species is sometimes called Beale’s Four-eyed Terrapin because of the eye-like spots on the top of the head. However, since another currently-recognised species from further south in China, Laos and Vietnam, Sacalia quadriocellata, is usually known as the Four-eyed Terrapin, it seems better just to use Beale’s for the species from further north. Just to confuse matters, the two were often considered the same species with the Four-eyed as Sacalia (originally Clemmys) bealei quadriocellata). Both forms have four ‘eye’ spots. Mitochondrial DNA analysis suggests two species but I am not wholly convinced they constitute more than one’ biological species’.
It was not until 1977 that one was found in the wild in Hong Kong, or at least recognised as such, a point I will come back to later.
My mind was taken back to late 1966 or early 1967 when a lecturer in biology at Hong Kong Baptist College brought some terrapins she had bought in a market in Kowloon over on the Star Ferry to HKU. She left them for me to have a good look at. After I returned them she was going to release them somewhere in the New Territories. I know she was keeping a regular eye on the terrapins appearing in the markets and I suspect she rescued more. Unfortunately and infuriatingly, I cannot remember her name and our correspondence has also been lost.
The most interesting species she had acquired were Beale’s Terrapin which we could see seemed to occur in two colour forms. I see that this variation is now ascribed to a difference between the sexes. The male is what was called the ‘pink’ form, with dark brown or black with dark spots and squiggles especially on the leading edge. The neck has pink stripes and the iris of the eye is also pink. The female is the ‘yellow’ form; the carapace is yellowish-brown; the stripes on the neck are yellow, as is the iris.
We photographed the individuals on the roof of the later-demolished Northcote Science Building. Unfortunately I used Agfacolor CT18 film which deteriorates markedly with age. However, I have three photographs which are worth showing here. The ocelli or eye spots can be seen in what is obviously a female—a feisty female. She shot her neck out to bite the rubber gloves my wife had in her hand and was about to put on since she was trying to keep her hands dry while terrapin wrangling. The rubber gloves make an accidental appearance in several photographs at that time since her (wife, not terrapin) hands were suffering the effects of exposure to the histologist’s favourite solvent, xylol (xylene). The ones I photographed were around 13 cm or 5”, not far off the maximum length of about 18 cm.
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| Beale's Terrapin - male |
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| Same individual as above |
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| Beale's Terrapin - female Note the 'eye' spots on top of the head |
It was impossible to find out if the ones that appeared in the Kowloon market (we never saw this species in Hong Kong Central Market which we kept an eye on if in town) had been caught in Kong Kong or had been brought in from China. Since they had not then been found in the wild in Hong Kong we assumed they had been brought over the border.
More information and modern photographs can be found here.
This is the video I found:
While it is true that the number of people looking for reptiles in Hong Kong increased markedly in the 1970s, with many more species, especially snakes, being found, I cannot help wondering how many Beale’s Terrapins my friend bought in the market and then released. And did others do the same? So is it just within the bounds of possibility that at least some of the Beale’s Terrapins living in Hong Kong are descended from those released individuals? Could there have been an unrecorded but successful re-introduction?
Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
Karsen SJ, Lau M W-N, Bogadek A. 1998. Hong Kong Amphibians and Reptiles. Second Edition. Hong Kong: Provisional Urban Council
Le MD, McCormack TEM, Hoang HV, Duong HT, Nguyen TQ, Ziegler T, Nguyen HD, Ngo HT. 2020. Threats from wildlife trade: The importance of genetic data in safeguarding the endangered Four-eyed Turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata). Nature Conservation 41, 91-111. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.41.54661
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