From the night of Wednesday the 7th to the night of Saturday the 10th I spent my time surrounded by over 200 other turtle and tortoise enthusiasts at the Turtle Survival Alliance's 11th Annual Symposium on the Conservation and Biology of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles here in St. Louis! It was truly an amazing thing to be completely surrounded by other people who have the same passions for conservation that I do. I met a lot of new people at the conference that I know I will be in contact with over the years. I also met people that are well known for their research on turtles and tortoises! I talked to one person who had given a presentation about migration studies on the giant tortoises in the Galapagos and through him I might be able to work in the Galapagos in a few years! I even met people that have worked with one of my professors at school with either Gopher Tortoises or river terrapins. It was so much fun being able to talk to other people about their work and I look forward to seeing all my new friends at next year's symposium!
Not only did I meet new people, I was able to connect more to people that I knew from the zoo. I was able to talk more to our curator about his PhD work in Armenia, my manager about miscellaneous turtle and work topics, and talk to a zookeeper and fellow turtle enthusiast about everything turtles. I also got to talk to our state herpetologist more during the week. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with people from work in a more laid back setting.
The conference started with an ice breaker social on Wednesday night where I got to meet a lot of new people. Thursday was the first day of presentations (general session set up) about field site updates and then a focus on Mexican turtles. Thursday night was a casual pizza dinner and poster session.
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| Epic watermelon turtle at the ice breaker |
Friday was the first day of specialized presentation topics. There were two sessions going on simultaneously throughout the day and attendees could pick and choose which presentations to attend. Friday I attended presentations about Turtle Ecology Studies, Nesting Studies, and a section about Zoos and Chelonians. In the final section of the day, one of our zookeeper gave a presentation about the history of chelonians at the zoo. Friday night was my favorite night of the conference because everyone came to the Saint Louis Zoo for a tour of the herpetarium and a dinner/live auction. I volunteered to help out for the behind the scenes tour and I was stationed at the main entrance into the off exhibit area. I got to talk about three different species of baby turtles that we have in the area as well as eggs that are currently incubating. I have worked this area a lot and helped to remodel the exhibits for the turtles last week. I really had fun talking to people that came in and I was proud of myself because I was able to answer a lot of questions that people had. Afterwards, a lot of people thanked the zookeepers and I for giving them a tour of our area. The dinner on Friday night brought about some laughs because by the time all of us zookeepers got to the banquet hall, the tables were full, so we sat at a table in the lobby and considered it the kid table at Thanksgiving.
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| Dinner and live auction at the zoo |
Saturday I went to presentations about Conservation Initiatives, Asian Chelonians, Turtling Techniques, and Big Questions for Turtles of All Sizes. Saturday night there was a banquet and awards ceremony. The highest award in the organization is the Behler Turtle Conservation Award named after John L. Behler who was an avid turtle conservationist who brought attention to the Asian turtle crisis. This year the award went to the TSA's president Rick Hudson. The acceptance speech he gave was inspirational to me because he said that he has been doing what he wanted to do at 12 years old. For me, I remember that in 6th grade I wrote down wanting to be a sea turtle conservationist. I hope that maybe one day my turtle conservation work will leave behind a legacy and make a change for future generations.
This symposium was an amazing experience not only for the networking opportunities, but also because it strengthened my passion for turtle conservation. I am even more excited to go out into the field and start doing what I have been dreaming of since 6th grade. I know I am in the right field because I love being surrounded and engulfed by conservation, biology, and chelonians. I am excited about the new doors that are opening up for me as I begin the last two years of my undergraduate degree as well as opportunities for me after graduation. Even though it was a symposium on freshwater turtles, I started brainstorming ideas for an undergraduate research project with sea turtles.
Overall, this symposium was amazing and was a great cap on my internship experience. I learned so many things, met new people, and felt at home surrounded by other turtle enthusiasts. The three days went really fast, but I am already looking forward to reuniting with everyone again in Orlando next year!
For more information about the Turtle Survival Alliance, their field projects, the conference, or anything else turtles, check out
http://www.turtlesurvival.org
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