TSA Newsletter: Turtle Conservancy and Behler Chelonian Center 2009-2010

August 2010 | By Ross Kiester, Eric Goode, Maximilian Maurer

In the last year, the Turtle Conservancy and Behler Chelonian Center (TC/BCC) focused on the coordinated interaction of in situ and ex situ conservation: in situ conservation focusing on local efforts to preserve species in their native habitats and ranges, and ex situ conservation focusing on off-site efforts to protect species outside their natural habitats. Our understanding of the optimum interaction and combination of in situ and ex situ conservation has led the TC to focus on a few long-term projects including working with the Malagasy government for the preservation of Astrochelys yniphora, inching closer to a breakthrough land purchase in Mexico for the preservation of Gopherus flavomarginatus, signing a formal cooperation agreement with the Taipei Zoo in an effort to better protect Geochelone platynota, and bringing critical knowledge of the captive husbandry of Siebenrockiella leytensis to the Philippine Islands.

TC/BCC personnel have been involved with Astrochelys yniphora for many decades and last year we have begun a major new effort with this most critically endangered tortoise. Jim Juvik rediscovered this species originally in 1971 when there was concern that it was already extinct. In the 1990s Juvik and Ross Kiester worked with Lee Durrell and Don Reid of the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust who had begun a captive breeding and field research program. In 2007 Eric Goode visited Richard Lewis of Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT) in Madagascar to begin discussions of collaboration and in January of 2008 Goode and Maurice Rodrigues participated in the Red-listing meeting in Madagascar. From that time we have worked actively with the many individuals and organization crafting the Action Plan for this species. This Action Plan is now being reviewed by the government of Madagascar and likely will become official policy.

We began our work on the implementation of this plan by forming a partnership with DWCT. Together we wrote a grant proposal to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that was funded in the amount of $30,000. The TC/BCC matched that amount, as did DWPT resulting in a total of $90,000. This money is being used for in situ work to enhance protection of the angonoka in Baly Bay National Park.  Here it is under extreme threat from poaching. Although completely protected by law, the recent political instability in Madagascar has made it all too easy for poachers to remove a significant portion of the remaining wild population. We are hopeful that these new resources for guards in the Park will help stop this exodus.

Coordinated with this work, the TC/BCC is committed to ex situ work enhancing the captive breeding facility that DWCT operates at Ampijoroa. In a separate ex situ effort, we are working with the TSA and other partners to create additional captive breeding colonies using animals confiscated from the illegal trade. This is a complex and difficult effort involving governments of Madagascar, the country in which the animals were confiscated, and the host country that will maintain the colony as well as CITES and TRAFFIC. The number of known confiscated angonoka is large with many more animals held illegally. These confiscated animals are a vital resource in the overall strategy to save this tortoise from extinction.

During September 2009 the TC/BCC co-director and scientific staff were guests of the Taipei Zoo in Taiwan and attended a regional, Asia-focused symposium on “Conservation Activities for Endangered Chelonian Species.” Eric Goode, Peter Praschag and James Juvik made presentations.  A significant motivation for this Zoo visit was to forge a working relationship Between the TC/BCC and the Zoo’s Center for Research and Conservation. The Center holds a large inventory of endangered turtles and tortoises confiscated from the illegal animal trade in Asia. These include several angonoka and we discussed their husbandry and the possibility that they could become part of an assurance colony.

After several years of effort in the field and at understanding the complexities of acquiring land in Mexico, the TC together with the Andrew Sabin Family Foundation and assisted by Josiah T. Austin and the Desert Tortoise Council is now in the process of purchasing 12,000 acres of prime bolson tortoise habitat in the middle of the Mapimí Biosphere Reserve. This land will be managed for the long-term health of the bolson tortoise population and is critical to its conservation. There is a substantial population at present so protecting the land from degradation due to cattle and off-road vehicle use will likely result in the largest population of this species anywhere. This land also is home to a wide variety of other animals and plants. It is adjacent to the Desert Laboratory operated by Mexico’s Institute of Ecology (INECOL) and has been the site of many studies of the Chihuahuan Desert.

We do not maintain this species at the BCC, but collaborate with the Turner Endangered Species Fund who is breeding bolson tortoises in New Mexico. We have shared expertise in captive breeding, set up parallel climate monitoring at the Turner site and in the Bolson de Mapimí and are providing on-board tortoise cams for a study of foraging in both localities. This ex situ work is part of a long-term plan to reintroduce this species in areas of its former range where it has gone extinct.

The BCC and the Taipei Zoo hold the two largest collections of Geochelone platynota in captivity outside Myanmar. Our mutual interest in the ex situ conservation of this species led the TC/BCC and the Taipei Zoo to sign a formal cooperation agreement on September 16, 2009. The agreement integrates the management of these two significant assurance populations into a single genetic resource. We also hosted personnel from the Taipei Zoo on two separate occasions at the BCC in California to further the partnership, exchange management ideas, and to collect genetic material to determine the paternity of our specimens.

We have had great success breeding this species and so are now working with these colleagues and with the TSA to repatriate some of these captive-bred animals to Myanmar.  

We have maintained a small group of this species at the BCC since 2008 and have learned about its husbandry requirements. This turtle is highly unusual in that it appears to be crepuscular and nocturnal, spending its days in burrows and its nights in streams. This unique natural history creates significant management problems for both in situ and ex situ conservation. The TC is supporting the TSA and Sabine Schoppe’s efforts in the Philippines to manage animals confiscated from the illegal pet trade. In 2009 we became a partner in this work by providing financial support and by visiting the site in the Philippines. Because understanding the natural history of this species is critical to their husbandry, the knowledge that the TC has gained maintaining S. leytensis will help this field project greatly.

The Behler Chelonian Center continued to have success in breeding producing a total of 145 hatchlings of 11 species. We hatched 32 Astrochelys radiata, 37 Geochelone platynota, and 5 Pyxis arachnoides as well as Chersina angulata, Homopus signatus, and Malacochersus tornieri. As we continue to transform breeding success into in situ conservation action, we sometimes have surplus animals available. All proceeds from these sales go directly into work in range countries. Our website has current details.

A major advance in the work of the Center came when Gerald Kuchling visited to determine the sexes of our offspring via endoscopy. Gerald sexed over 120 juvenile animals. Knowing the sex of hatchlings as soon as possible is extremely important to captive breeding because it tells us if we are incubating eggs at the correct temperature to produce the mix of males and females we desire. Early sexing also makes studbook management much easier, because it means that we can meet studbook goals years sooner than if we had to wait for the hatchlings to grow up in order to be sexed.

In addition to the trips to Taiwan and the Philippines mentioned above, we undertook an extended trip to Namibia and South Africa to learn about the habitats of the many species of tortoises that can be encountered between Windhoek, Namibia, and Cape Town, South Africa. We were especially interested to see Chersina angulata and Homopus signatus in the in their native habitats as they are species we maintain at the BCC.  Our trip is documented in a video, which will be presented at the TSA meeting.

The TC also traveled to the Ryukyu Islands of Southern Japan in search of Geoemyda japonica to study its ecology, status, and distribution. Again we maintain this species at the BCC and seeing it in the wild increased our understanding of its husbandry requirements. The video documenting this trip is available for viewing here.

A short trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, took us again to the Oaxaca Turtle Museum and gave us the opportunity to retrieve weather data loggers we had previously left in the habitat of Rhinoclemmys rubida rubida. Placing these data loggers in the actual habitats of the tortoises and terrestrial turtles that we study and keep gives us a much better picture of their actual annual microclimate requirements. Data derived from conventional weather stations often does not provide an accurate representation of this microclimate because the stations are too far away and are not inside a specific habitat. We now routinely use these data loggers as we travel and have placed them at several locations in Madagascar, Argentina, and Mexico.

The TC/BCC is delighted to announce that we have hired Dr. Paul Gibbons (DVM, MS) to be the new Director of the Behler Chelonian Center. Paul is the President-elect of the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians and is held in high esteem in the herpetological community community. We are looking forward to even better care of our living collection and to helping Paul shape the direction of reptile veterinary medicine. Look for him at the TSA meeting.

In the next year, the TC will continue along, slow and steady, supporting in situ and ex situ projects, seeing to it that current projects come to fruition, and engaging in collaborations that lead to coordinated projects. Our greatest challenge now is to make this whole endeavor sustainable to help ensure that turtle and tortoise populations are sustainable.

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