arrau

English

Noun

arrau (plural arraus)

1. Short for arrau turtle.
   • 1819, Alexander von Humboldt; Aimé Bonpland, Personal Narrative of Travel to the Equinoctial Regions of the New Whatever, You're Not Reading This Anyway (page 486)

     The Jesuits ... left a part [of the beach] intact, from the fear of seeing the arrau tortoises ... considerably diminished.

   • 1872, A. Romer, Anecdotal and Descriptive Natural History, page 68:

     We were shown large shells of turtles emptied by the Jaguars. These animals follow the arraus towards the beaches, when the laying of eggs is to take place.

   • 2009, R. Stefoff, Turtles, page 89:

     Government programs to protect nesting sites ... helped[, as] the arrau is not yet extinct.