Feitsui Reservoir Yellow-margined Box Turtle Wildlife Refuge

Information

Date of foundation	December 10, 2013
Area( hectare )	1295.93
Primary Object for Protection	Forest ecosystem
Scope of Administration	Situated in Shiding District, New Taipei City. It includes the Sub-section of Houkengzi Section, Sub-section of Gangou Section, Huoshaozhang Section, and Tonghoubei Section in Shiding District, New Taipei City, for a total of 725 pieces of land. The cadastral is attached.
Authority in-charge-of	Forestry Bureau, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan (Luodong District Office)

“Snake-eating turtle”, also known as the yellow-margined box turtle, is one of the five native freshwater turtle species in Taiwan which mainly inhabits the woods on low-altitude mountains. Despite the name, it does not eat snakes but a large variety of food, including fruit, snails, and insects. Due to habitat destruction and rampant capturing by human beings in recent years, its population has rapidly reduced. Nearly ten thousand of them have been captured and smuggled to China. Now this species is listed as a protected rare wild animal in the CITES. Given that Feitsui Reservoir is home to the most stably reproduced and the largest wild “snake-eating turtle” population in Asia, the Council of Agriculture set up the Feitsui Reservoir Snake-eating Turtle Wildlife Refuge in 2013, the first demonstration area for turtle conservation in Asia.