The Myanmar roofed turtle (Batagur trivittata) was thought to be extinct until 2001 when the
shell of a Myanmar roofed turtle was found. This species experienced a decline
in numbers due to habitat degradation from illegal gold miners and being hunted
by the Khamti Shan, people from the northwest part of the country. After the
discovery in 2001, other members of this species were found at wildlife markets
in China and a pond in Mandalay. The
three turtles discovered in these locations formed a captive assurance colony
until more individuals could be found. A captive breeding program was created
in 2007. There are now over 600 species located across the country.
In 2011, the Myanmar Ministry of Environmental Conservation
and Forestry opened a facility in Linpha Village to bring the roofed turtle
closer to their home habitat. This facility now holds more than 300 species.
Beginning in February 60 species were released into the wild to join the 10
known wild females. The individuals released had to meet a set of criteria to
ensure their survival (had to be seven years of age). To ensure the
sustainability of the program and the turtles, local residents have volunteered
to help monitor the turtle nesting areas and guard the eggs. The recent turtle releases are an important
step towards conservation efforts in this impoverished country.
This article did a good job of bringing attention to a great
conservation effort by the Myanmar people. Any sort of effort to restore the
population of a species is worthy of national news. It is important to inform readers
of what some of the threats are to herps and what efforts are being made to
help them. I think it would have been important for the author to include more
information on the roofed turtle species in general. Nonetheless, articles
describing conservation efforts are important because hopefully they will
inspire to people to start making changes themselves.
2 comments:
Cool! It's nice to see a success story!
Conservation is definitely a top priority of CofC students!
Another cool aspect of my classes here has been with our bioinformatics and genomics-oriented professors.
I found an interesting article about a sequencing project on another highly endangered turtle--Podocnemis lewyana. This project identified an efficient way of using rapid micro satellite markers to find loci in turtles. They chose an endangered turtle species as part of a conservation effort and it would be very interesting if they plan on using this approach on Batagur trivittata for similar reasons!
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