I had the pleasure of visiting The Turtle Survival Alliance with Dr. Welch and fellow classmates last weekend. It was truly an amazing, yet saddening experience. The organization formed in 2001 in response to what has been called the Asian Turtle Crisis. In the last 50 years turtle populations across Asia have become drastically depleted and some species have gone nearly extinct as result of such a high demand of turtle meat for consumption and medicinal purposes. If one were to walk into an Asian market, they would encounter hundreds and thousands of turtles being sold for food. Turtles populations in Asian have declined so drastically that countries such as China are now importing turtles from South America, Africa and even the United States to fuel the high demand of turtle meat.
This crisis has lead to certain species to become critically endangered, and the only species still in existence are in captivities such as the TSA. These programs create breeding programs and conservation plans that ultimately plan on releasing these species back into the wild in the future when it is considered safe.
I was lucky
enough to have not only met, but interacted with two of the TSA’s Asian brown
Tortoises, Manouria emys. The genus Manouria can be distinguished by having short,
wide cervical and divided scutes. Their morphological features include, large
domed carapace, serrate posterior marginal, enlarged spurs or pointed scales,
and are uniformly brown in color. This species is the largest land tortoise in
Asia and can reach up to 25 kg. This species inhabits broadleaf evergreen
forest in upland habitats such as Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo. This
species is chiefly herbivorous, and as we learned they will virtually eat
anything put in front of them (Some of us tried to feed them grass!)
The TSA has
established many programs for species like the brown tortoise to work with
local communities to promote conservation and awareness the turtle crisis. The
TSA is the only conservation NGO solely committed to turtle conservation, with
the goal of zero turtle extinctions in the 21st century.
References:
Swingland I.R, Klemens M.W. (1989) The conservation Biology
of Tortoises. ICUN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
Turtle Survival Alliance: http://www.turtlesurvival.org/index.php#.VTvsp5NdU3Y
3 comments:
Oh, Asian brown Tortoises, Manouria emys, that's what they were. I was just showing my mom pictures and videos of them yesterday and couldn't remember what kind they are. No wonder they like me, lol. I'll try and see if my video is uploadable. It's got the blind one opening up its mouth and showing its tongue!
I was completely unaware of the large impact that the demand for turtle meat had on so many species until we went here. I was aware of the popular market in China, but I did not know it had grown to such an extent. I think turtle meat is still considered a delicacy even in the United States, at least in some southern states, since I always hear about people trying turtle soup or stew. I cannot help but ask if our own local species are becoming threatened for the same reason, or if it is mainly habitat loss or modification. Due to many species being exported to China because of the high demand, as you stated, it causes me to question the actual reasoning of species loss in the southern United States. How much influence is the import and export of our turtles really affecting our the populations around here? We had the privilege to learn in detail what happened over in China, but hopefully more attention will be paid in the United States. Many people probably don't even take notice in how our local populations are being affected by the turtle meat trade, due to us being able to still see them in the wild around here. Hopefully more laws and regulations will be put in place, so we don't see our adorable turtles disappear too!
More about US turtle exports -- http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/30/us-usa-florida-turtles-idUSKBN0IJ2KB20141030
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