Geographic range extension of Speke's Hinge-back Tortoise Kinixys spekii Gray, 1863

Kinixys spekii has a wide distribution range across sub-Saharan Africa, having been reported from Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, eSwatini, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Kinixys spekii inhabits savannah and dry bushveld habitats and was previously considered an inland species. However, recent records suggest a more extensive geographical distribution. Here, we provide genetically verifed records for Angola, South Africa, and Mozambique, and discuss reliable sightings for Rwanda. These new records extend the range signifcantly to the east and west, and provide evidence for the occurrence of this species along the coast of the Indian Ocean in South Africa and Mozambique.

Citation

Ihlow F, Farooq HM, Gvoždík V, Hofmeyr MD, Conradie W, Campbell PD, Harvey J, Verburgt L, Fritz U. 2019. Geographic range extension of Speke’s Hinge-back Tortoise Kinixys spekii Gray, 1863. Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 13(2) [Special Section]: 61–67 (e195).

Type

Journal Article

Item Description

© 2019 Ihlow et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The official and authorized publication credit sources, which will be duly enforced, are as follows: offcial journal title Amphibian & Reptile Conservation; official journal website: amphibian-reptile-conservation.org.
NHM Repository

ISSN

1083-446X