Turtle Facts #1

I wanted to put together some of the information that I learned at the symposium/information I know about turtles and tortoises! Hopefully some of the facts will help to spread awareness about issues that chelonians are facing and help to show the importance of conservation.

• In Madagascar, tribes use to have taboos against eating tortoises. These started breaking down in the 1970s when outsiders started to move in. There has been an increase in the number of confiscations of tortoises recently from Madagascar (which is hopefully due to an increase in security rather than an increase in poaching).
• The Magdalena River Turtle (Podocnemis lewyana) is facing a loss of nesting beaches due to a hydroelectric dam built on the Sinu River that drains water during the summer. This is when the turtles are nesting, but the water levels are too high to allow the eggs to survive the flood. Now the eggs have to be taken from the sand, incubated, hatched, and released back into the wild.

Madgalena River Turtle

• The Black-Softshell Turtle (Nilssonia nigricans) was earlier thought to be extinct until some were found in a temple pond in India.

Black-Softshell Turtle

•  The Northern River Terrapin (Batagur baska) is really cool:

Batagur baska male in mating colors

• It estimated that the Indian Red Crowned Roofed Turtle's (Batagur kachuga) wild population contains less than 500 adults.

Indian Red Crowned Roof Turtle

• There are less than ten adult female Burmese Roof Turtles (Batagur trivittata) left in the wild and about 650 in captivity.

Burmese Roof Turtle

• The Arakan Forest Turtle (Heosemys depressa) is known as the "lazy turtle" amongst locals because when they are found they are usually hiding under leaves.

Arakan Forest Turtle

• There was old lore that the Spotted Box Turtle (Terrapene nelsoni) was a cross between a Gila Monster and a desert tortoise since it was more aggressive and 'potentially venomous'.

Spotted Box Turtle