A NOTE FROM NIGEL MARVEN
I plunged my arms into the cold water to lift out a most peculiar turtle. I was in Yunnan, in southern China. The province’s rainforests are home to some three hundred Asian elephants, and big-headed turtles live in the streams rushing through Yunnan’s mountains. The one I’m holding is about 10 inches long, and looks as if it’s made up of mismatched and poorly sized parts left over from other turtles. Its massive head is half the width of its carapace - there’s not enough space inside the shell to withdraw it, so for protection the turtle has an armor-plated skull.
The big-headed turtle was one of last year’s filming highlights, but we were very lucky to lay our hands on one. Turtles all over the world, particularly in Asia, are in crisis. The locals told me that big-headed turtles are much scarcer than they were even ten years ago. Other species living in their range are on the brink of extinction. The Yunnan box turtle, which lives alongside Yunnan’s elephants, is one of the rarest of the rare.
Of course, habitat loss and pollution have contributed to this calamitous state of affairs, but the main cause of the turtle crisis is over-collecting for food or traditional Chinese medicines. In 1996, 3.5 million kilograms of turtles were imported and consumed in Hong Kong alone. In the 21st century, the turtle trade has become more massive still; with China’s economy booming there are more wealthy Chinese than ever before, many with a taste for turtle. The increased demand has meant turtles from all over the world now end up in the Chinese food markets.
Many people, including the Chinese themselves, are realizing the trade is unsustainable. I’ve recently done infomercials for Yunnan TV, a Chinese satellite channel which prides itself on its conservation ethic and covers the whole of China, Laos and Vietnam, urging people to stop eating animals taken from the wild. A groundswell of protest is beginning, especially amongst the younger Chinese, but it will take time until everyone realizes there no cachet from consuming wild animals, and certainly no benefits for one’s health.
In this transition period, until eating wild animals becomes unfashionable, the TURTLE and TORTOISE PRESERVATION GROUP’s work is vital and why I’m proud to be a supporting member of the TTPG. Captive breeding is such an important weapon in the survival of species. Zoos and aquariums only have the resources and enough experts to preserve a handful of the world’s turtle species. The TTPG has the expertise and enthusiasm to help save a whole lot more. I know that the members, often at their own expense, are building up assurance colonies ready for a return to the wild when conditions are right. With viable colonies of the big-headed turtle in captivity, the species would at least have a safety net, if it disappeared from its rainforest home. Individuals could be returned to the wild when it is safe to do so.
TTPG is also a treasure trove of information for all turtle keepers, wherever they live in the world, whether they’re members or not. This isn’t a secret society, members don’t want to keep husbandry and breeding techniques to themselves, the group’s aim is to disseminate knowledge about husbandry and breeding to anyone anywhere that needs it. Their annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona is one of the premier turtle events of the year.
Their work to build up assurance colonies is well on the way with the Egyptian tortoise, one of the world’s smallest. Their habitats are being destroyed by agricultural projects, resort developments and overgrazing by livestock, but the species is being bred by TTPG members just in case the erosion of numbers in the wild is unstoppable. They are also focusing on the endangered spider and flat-tailed tortoises of Madagascar, the Asian box turtles, and many other aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial species from around the world.
Odontochelys, a surreal creature with a full set of teeth and a strange bony extension of its ribs and backbone (which later more advanced turtles would fuse to form the one-piece carapace), lived in southwest China in the late Triassic, some 220 million years ago. It’s the earliest turtle fossil known. Some of Asia’s living turtles, like the big-headed turtle that I lifted out of that cold stream in Yunnan, are strange and fascinating too. It would be a tragedy if they became extinct because of us - the members of the TURTLE and TORTOISE PRESERVATION GROUP are doing their utmost to prevent this from happening.
