ARKive - images and movies of the spiny turtle (Heosemys spinosa)

The spiny turtle (Heosemys spinosa) inhabits lowland and hill rainforest, usually in the vicinity of small streams, mainly in hill areas up to 900 m.

The spiny turtle is known from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Featured animals in this area include Indian rhinos, Malayan tapirs, lion-tailed macaques, orangutans, Mandarin Ducks, spiny turtles, rare Sumatran tigers, and various freshwater fish.

Vermont has agreed to rip out part of the causeway but not all of it, arguing that an endangered species, the spiny turtle, has adopted the causeway as a basking spot.

Inside the elephant house, other indigenous Asian species are exhibited, including great Indian hornbills, azure-winged magpies, green peafowl, red-billed blue magpie, red junglefowl, Derbyan parakeets, spiny turtles, and monitor lizards.

The Asiatic spiny turtle (left) boasts a rim of sharp spikes around the edge of its shell, and the pancake tortoise (bottom) has an unusually flattened shell and body enabling it to slither to safety under low crevices.

They encounter a "tuxix" - a creature that looks like a spiny turtle, but is in reality "a magician, a sorcerer, a wizard, and a witch all rolled into one...and you can imagine what a dreadful thing that would be."