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Testudines · ChelidaeEntry 4,290 of 21,572
McCord's Snakeneck Turtle, Chelodina mccordi

Reptilia · Testudines

Chelodina mccordiRhodin, 1994

McCord's Snakeneck Turtle

Identification not confirmed. One observer recorded this animal as this species and no one has since agreed, so the photograph may show a different animal.

Photograph by zebedeugalinha, CC BY, via iNaturalist

A nocturnal turtle from the Oriental region, reaching 24 cm across the shell.

Reptilia › Testudines › Chelidae › Chelodina

Grows to
241mm
greatest recorded
Active
Nocturnal
Lives
Aquatic, terrestrial
Weighs up to
1771g
greatest
Body length across Chelidae

Longer than only 33% of all species in Chelidae anyone has measured.

33% of 42 species are smaller67% larger
155 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest500 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 155 to 500 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

27 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Conservation status
Critically Endangered
Population trend
Decreasing

The animal itself

Colour on the back
Brown
Pattern on the back
Uniform
Pupil
Round
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
241mm9.5 in

total length, tail included — Colston, Kulkarni, Jetz, and Pyron, 2020, BMC Evol. Biol., 20:81

Shell length, front to back · greatest recorded
240mm9.5 in

straight carapace length, measured in a line rather than over the curve

Largest juvenile · shell length
20mm0.8 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
1771g3.9 lb

largely converted from length by allometry in the source

Body mass at hatching
10g0.35 oz

How it lives

Active
Nocturnal
Where it lives
Aquatic, terrestrial
Habitat
Wetlands
Region
Oriental

Breeding

Reproduction
Oviparous
Sex decided by
Genes, XX/XY
Average clutch
8eggs
Eggs or young per clutch
6.5–14eggs
Clutches in a year
2per year
Egg length
30mm1.25 in
Egg width
20mm0.8 in

Naming and history

Subspecies
Chelodina mccordi mccordi RHODIN 1994 Chelodina mccordi timorensis MCCORD, JOSEPH-OUNION & HAGEN 2007
Described by
Rhodin
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
No
Described in
1994

Keeping one

McCord's Snakeneck Turtle is assessed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. Species at risk in the wild are often covered by CITES and by national law, which decide what may be bought, sold, moved across a border or kept at all — and captive-bred and wild-caught animals are usually treated differently. Check the rules where you are before acquiring one. Nothing below is a judgement about keeping this species; it is what a published welfare standard says about space, and what the animal itself was measured doing.

3 ft 11 in × 23.5 in(120 × 60 cm)

Minimum floor length × width, for one animal. Bigger is always better. The standard sets no height for turtles and tortoises.

The standard sizes this genus at 5 times carapace length, with the width half the resulting length.

For a third and fourth turtle the standard asks for at least 10% more floor area each, and 20% more from the fifth onwards.

Water depth is set against the animal's carapace width rather than its length, so no figure is given here. Dry-country tortoises need no water area, only occasional bathing; tortoises from wetter regions need a water dish.

Swiss law reaches the same 8 × 4 of carapace length for land tortoises, arrived at separately from the German gutachten.

Gutachten über Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengruppe tierschutzgerechte Haltung von Terrarientieren), German Federal Ministry, 10 January 1997, section 5. The standard states these are recommendations rather than binding limits.

Swiss Tierschutzverordnung (TSchV), SR 455.1, Anhang 2, Tabelle 5 — legally binding minimum enclosure sizes, which give every land tortoise 8 × 4 body lengths for two animals.

From this animal’s own carapace length of 9.5 in (240 mm), at 5 times it — how this is worked out.

No preferred body temperature has been recorded for McCord's Snakeneck Turtle. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.

Feeding

151kJ per day

Worked out for an animal of 1,771 g, the heaviest recorded for McCord's Snakeneck Turtle — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.

An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • — Still living
  • — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
  • — Length snout to vent · adult female mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • — Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • — Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • — Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • — Largest female · snout to vent
  • — Largest male · snout to vent
  • — Largest female · shell length
  • — Largest male · shell length
  • — Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • — Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • — Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • — Body mass · a typical adult
  • — Body mass · adult female, mean
  • — Longest recorded life
  • — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • — Diet
  • — Eats arthropods
  • — Eats vertebrates
  • — Eats plant matter
  • — How it hunts
  • — How the young develop
  • — Gestation or incubation
  • — Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • — Mean clutch · largest reported
  • — Clutches a year · fewest
  • — Clutches a year · most
  • — First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • — First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • — Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • — Age at first breeding · female
  • — Mature from · youngest recorded
  • — Mature by · oldest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • — Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • — Limbs
  • — Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
  • — Red List criteria
  • — Biome
  • — Active season · shortest recorded
  • — Active season · longest recorded
  • — Density · lowest recorded
  • — Density · highest recorded
  • — Home range · largest recorded
  • — Suborder
  • — Infraorder
  • — Type locality
  • — Active in
  • — Mainland or island
  • — Lowest it lives · above sea level
  • — Highest it lives · above sea level
  • — Range size

Others in Chelidae

Take this data

Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.

This species as JSON · the whole dataset

Cite this page

The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Chelodina mccordi. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chelodina-mccordi

@misc{chelodina_mccordi_2026,
  title  = {Chelodina mccordi},
  author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/chelodina-mccordi}
}

Sources

  1. Moura, M. R. et al. TetrapodTraits: a database of 33,281 tetrapod species. Used under CC BY 4.0. Observed values only; this encyclopedia does not publish its imputed predictions.
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.