The TSA has been working in Bangladesh, in collaboration with the NGO CARINAM, the Forest Department and the Vienna Zoo, since 2010 to secure an assurance colony for the Northern River Terrapin (Batagur baska), one of Asia’s most threatened large river turtles. After literally scouring markets and private ponds to secure some of the last known specimens of this Critically Endangered species, an assurance colony of 13 males and five females has been assembled and is now housed in a protected area (Bhawal National Park) managed by the Forest Department.

We are thrilled to report that as of mid-April, all five females have nested! Caretakers are carefully monitoring the nests, one of which had to be relocated to protect it from flooding. The nest had 15 eggs and the clutch was divided. Eight eggs were placed in the dugout nest on the sand beach and the remaining seven eggs were placed in a tank filled with sand covered by a protective mesh. The eggs from the remaining four nests have been left in the sandy beach covered by protective mesh to prevent predation.

Thanks to the Fagus Foundation, Cassidy Johnson, San Diego Zoo, Natural Encounters, Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, WWF-Canada, Pat Koval, AAZK – Henry Doorly Zoo, Toronto Zoo and Columbus Zoo for their support of this critical program.

Photo credits: SMA Rashid / CARINAM

The Center for Advanced Research in Natural Resource and Management (CARINAM), the TSA’s partner on the Batagur baska project in Bangladesh, recently celebrated the Year of the Turtle with an event at Dhaka University. Held in collaboration with the IUCN, Bangladesh Bird Club and Priokriti-o-Jibon, the event was held in the Teacher Student Center on May 25. 

The celebration included a rally by school children, presentations by conservationists, and a bird exhibition to create awareness of turtle conservation issues and to encourage people to take action and keep turtles as part of a healthy ecosystem.

The nesting season for wild Asian river terrapins (Batagur) is winding down, just on the heels of the recently completed Batagur workshop in Singapore and Malaysia in February, and we hope that the training will have an impact on hatching success.

In Myanmar, Kalyar Platt (TSA Turtle Conservation Coordinator) just returned from the upper Chindwin River where she worked with field coordinator Kyaw Moe on the nest protection and egg recovery effort for the critically endangered Burmese roof turtle (Batagur trivittata). They report that in this 2010-2011 nesting season, nesting occurred as early as 9 December 2010 and continued through 26 March 2011. During this period, a total of 179 eggs were recovered for incubation. Approximately six to nine females were thought to have nested along a 48-mile stretch of the river.

Day 4 finally rolled around and it was time to sit back and listen to presentations on some of what are considered model programs for turtle conservation in the region.  First up is the Cuc Phuong Turtle Conservation Center in Vietnam, perhaps the best known and respected of all the regional centers due to its longevity.  The presentation was done by the young man in charge now, Hoan Van Thai. This was his first ever public presentation before an international audience and for a shy person, he did an admirable job.  He was followed by Shailendra Singh, TSA Turtle Conservation Coordinator, who presented a comprehensive 5-year overview of the Batagur program on the Chambal River Sanctuary in India.  This program is impressive in its scope and the number of hatchling Batagur (two species) that have been hatched and released (37,000 for B. dhongoka alone) is significant.  Many other components are involved including headstarting, local awareness and poacher conversion.

With all the country and trade reports as background information, and with the Red-listing behind us, the stage was finally set for the critical Day 3 of the workshop:  designing specific priority conservation actions for the most threatened species.  And though I am not at liberty to formally report the findings of the Red List workshop, I can tell you that the situation has worsened, in fact very considerably.  The number of species recommended for the Critically Endangered rank (the next most serious rank is Extinct In The Wild) now stands at 38% of the 86 Asian species, a 90% increase since the 1999 Cambodia workshop!!

On Tuesday morning - day two of the workshop - the seventy workshop participants reviewed the “Red List,” an internationally recognized database of the world’s most vulnerable species. Participants from countries throughout Asia provided the most up-to-date information on the status of each species. A few were determined to be secure enough now to consider lowering their Red List status, but for a significant number of other species the group agreed that they are now at a greater risk of extinction than when previously reviewed.

Despite numerous successes in captive breeding, habitat protection and community awareness, these dwindling species have suffered overwhelming stresses to their populations. Be it a poor fisherman trying to feed his family or a wildlife trader selling rare animals to an international collector for thousands of dollars, both result in animals being vacuumed from the wild.

We were happy to see some old friends and meet some new ones at the Conservation of Asian Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles workshop at the Singapore Zoo. Over 70 delegates from 20 countries, including 16 Asian nations were in attendance.

Hosted by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore and the Wildlife Conservation Society, in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden, San Diego Zoo Global and the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, the workshop summarized the turtle conservation activities over the past ten years in Asia. 

Many of the same issues we heard about 10 years ago in Phnom Penh, Cambodia are still an issue, a disappointment but a reminder that we aren’t doing enough.  There were some great highlights to the day mingled amongst the somber news; our Asian friends have not been sitting by idly.  The scope and scale of the turtle trade in Asia is clearly still the problem and new countries and trade routes are being exploited.  The numbers of turtles passing through some of these countries is almost incomprehensible; one country reported in excess of 40,000 lbs of turtles registered as being traded per year.  This only represents what is passing through legally “on the books” and does not represent what is being transported illegally.  One market in China reported in excess of one million turtles being sold annually with most of the turtles being endangered or critically endangered.  Some of the rarer animals for the pet market are fetching prices of USD 25,000; it is little wonder these animals are being vacuumed from the landscape. 

The TSA team is still hard at work in Bangladesh, plying the markets and private ponds in search of the extremely rare Sundarbans river terrapin (Batagur baska). Their efforts were recently rewarded, as they secured another female and two additional males, bringing the total to ten males and three females in the breeding program. Working closely with the CARINAM and the Bangladesh Forest Department, Rupali Ghose is negotiating to acquire another female in the coming days. Creating a viable breeding program is crucial for the conservation of this species, one of the rarest river turtles in Asia.

The turtles in the program are being released into two protected ponds in a National Park near Dhaka. The ponds have been excavated and a sand nesting beach has been constructed with the assistance of officials from the Forest Department.  Funding was provided by Pat Koval and WWF Canada.

November 7, 2010:  “We succeeded in securing an additional three males however we missed saving one male by 5 minutes as it was slaughtered at the market.  If we had been just a few minutes earlier we could have stopped it from being slaughtered, but unfortunately we arrived after they had already started chopping the plastron off.”

These were the anguished words of Brian Horne after leaving the weekend turtle market in Dhaka, Bangladesh in what he would later describe “as one of the worst days of my life, the whole experience left me feeling numb”

Working with Ms. Rupali Ghose (pictured), Brian was plying the turtle markets on behalf of TSA to secure additional breeding stock of the Sundarbans river terrapin, Batagur baska, recognized as one of the most threatened of Asia’s large river turtles, ranking just behind the Yangtze giant softshell, Rafetus swinhoei.  Working with the Bangladesh Forest Department and the NGO Carinam, TSA had already acquired 5 males and 2 females this year for a captive breeding program.  But every specimen is valuable and extreme efforts must be made to secure them before the species slips into extinction.