Species identification tools: reptiles

In an effort to contribute to the enforcement of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) trade regulations and assist front-line staff to control regulated species and their products, Environment and Climate Change Canada has developed a series of easy-to-use guides. These guides do not require any advanced level of training and are designed in full colour with the specific goal of identifying CITES species.

If the following documents are not accessible to you, please contact us by email, wildlife.enforcement@ec.gc.ca, or by phone, 1-800-668-6767 (in Canada only), for assistance or to obtain other formats.

CITES Identification Guide - Crocodilians

• Entire document (PDF 9.9 MB)

CITES Identification Guide - Turtles and Tortoises

• Entire document (PDF 9.7 MB)

CITES Identification Sheets

• Cuora aurocapitata (Yellow-headed Box Turtle) (PDF 1.2 MB)
• Cuora mccordi (McCord's Box Turtle) (PDF 1.2 MB)
• Cuora pani (Pan's Box Turtle) (PDF 1.0 MB)
• Cuora yunnanensis (Yunnan Box Turtle) PDF 1.1 MB)
• Cuora zhoui (Zhou's Box Turtle) (PDF 1.1 MB)
• Heosemys depressa (Arakan Forest Turtle) (PDF 858 KB)
• Siebenrockiella leytensis (Philippine Pond Turtle) (PDF 922 KB)

To access the Portable Document Format (PDF) version you must have a PDF reader installed. If you do not already have such a reader, there are numerous PDF readers available for free download or for purchase on the Internet:

• Adobe Reader
• Foxit Reader
• Xpdf
• eXPert PDF Reader