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Brazilian Giant Tortoise
Casey Klebba, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Turtles & tortoises

Brazilian Giant Tortoise

Chelonoidis denticulatus (Linnaeus, 1766)

VU VulnerableOn Suriname's list of threatened fauna

Names

EnglishBrazilian Giant Tortoise
DutchBraziliaanse reuzenschildpad
SpanishTortuga terrestre de patas amarillas
Chinese黄腿象龟
Sranan Tongosekrepatu (general name for the group)
Scientific nameChelonoidis denticulatus (Linnaeus, 1766)

About this species

The yellow-footed tortoise (Chelonoidis denticulatus), also known as the Brazilian giant tortoise, is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae and is closely related to the red-footed tortoise (C. carbonarius). It is found in the Amazon Basin of South America. The species name has often been misspelled as denticulata, an error introduced in the 1980s when Chelonoidis was elevated to genus and mistakenly treated as feminine, an error recognized and fixed in 2017.

With an average length of 40 cm (15.75 in) and the largest known specimen at 94 cm (37 in), this is the sixth-largest tortoise species on Earth, after the Galapagos tortoise, the Aldabra tortoise, the African spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata, typical size 76 cm (30 in)), the leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis), and the Asian forest tortoise (Manouria emys), typical size 60 cm (23.6 in)).

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassTestudines
FamilyTestudinidae
GenusChelonoidis

In Suriname

193Records in Suriname
35iNaturalist observations
1828First record
2026Latest record

Where it has been recorded

  • Sipaliwini32
  • Brokopondo8
  • Para4
  • Commewijne2
  • Paramaribo1

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Records by month

All years combined.

Sources & credits

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Related species in Suriname