Golden coin turtle (Cuora trifasciata) or Chinese three-striped box turtle is a species of turtle endemic to southern China.
The species is distributed in China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Hainan Provinces as well as Hong Kong). The populations from Lao People's Democratic Republic and Vietnam are now regarded a separate species, Vietnamese Three-striped Box Turtle (C. cyclornata).
It hybridizes vigorously with its relatives in captivity and in the wild, and hybrids may be fertile. Several of these have been described as new species, such as the Fujian Pond Turtle ("Mauremys" × iversoni), a hybrid between (usually) males of this species and females of the Asian Yellow Pond Turtle (Mauremys mutica). In addition, the Golden Coin Turtle is suspected to be a parent of the supposed species Chinese False-eyed Turtle and Philippen's Striped Turtle.
The species is considered Critically Endangered with extinction by the IUCN. It is used in folk medicine, e.g. as the key ingredient for the Chinese medicinal dessert guīlínggāo (龜苓膏); thus it is under threat because of unsustainable hunting. This is one of the most endangered turtle species in the world, according to a 2003 assessment by the IUCN.
Read more about Golden Coin Turtle: Farming
Famous quotes containing the words golden, coin and/or turtle:
“Such is always the pursuit of knowledge. The celestial fruits, the golden apples of the Hesperides, are ever guarded by a hundred-headed dragon which never sleeps, so that it is an Herculean labor to pluck them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The oft-repeated Roman story is written in still legible characters in every quarter of the Old World, and but today, perchance, a new coin is dug up whose inscription repeats and confirms their fame. Some “Judæa Capta,” with a woman mourning under a palm tree, with silent argument and demonstration confirms the pages of history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away.
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone;
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;”
—Bible: Hebrew The Song of Solomon (l. II, 10–12)