Archives of The Cold Blooded News

The Newsletter of the Colorado Herpetological Society

Volume 30, Number 6;   June, 2003

Threatened Asian Turtles Come to North Carolina

David Lee, curator of birds at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, invited dozens of fellow turtle preservationists to the reserve over the weekend to help install ponds and build pens for the rare turtles. The volunteers traveled from as far as Massachusetts and Florida to do the work, so the turtles can get on with theirs: producing baby turtles.

"They're not my pets. They're not my friends. The point is to make more of them," Lee said.

About 60,000 turtles are taken to Chinese markets every day, Lee said. In many Asian cultures, turtles are a traditional meal. Some turtle species are considered to be aphrodisiacs or potential cures for diseases.

In some areas of Asia, entire villages will hunt for a particular turtle, Lee said, because a single animal can be sold for $2,000 - enough to support the village for an entire year.

Lee and other turtle preservationists aim to protect the turtles long enough for them to breed and restore their populations. Turtles can live more than 100 years and can reproduce during much of that span. Lee said.

In the meantime, Lee said, perhaps attitudes towards turtles will change in Asia and around the world, so they can someday be reintroduced to their homelands. Of the 160 species of turtles in the world, Lee said, about half need special protection to keep them from extinction. To protect the turtles, Lee asked that the exact location of the Bladen County reserve not be revealed. Inside a wooden hut on the reserve property, aquariums of all sizes cover every available inch of space.

The aquariums contain dozens of different species, including the Vietnamese pond turtle, an animal that disappeared in the wild about the same time that it was discovered in a province near Hanoi. The four adult pond turtles have already produced young.

The future of these turtles depends on protecting and breeding them, Lee said. A group called the Asian Turtle Consortium, which has about 50 members, will duplicate this Bladen County reserve elsewhere.

And the Tortoise Reserve, of which Lee is executive director, has helped preserve about a million acres of turtle sanctuary around the world. Of those acres, 18,000 are in Bladen County.

The construction of the Bladen reserve is being financed in part by a grant from Conservation International. Much of the conservation money comes from a farm in Venezuela in which Lee and others are partners.

On that farm, red-footed tortoises are raised for sale for the pet trade. That trade helps pay to save other turtle species. Lee said.

The reserve is also getting support from the Bladen County community. Grocers will donate food for the turtles. Lee said, and others have donated their services, such as plumbing.

Lee compares the plight of the Asian turtles to that of the American buffalo around the turn of the century. In the early 1900s, he said, only a few buffalo remained and they were kept on private preserves.

"They kept the species alive," Lee said, "and now there are plenty of them."