Archive for July 2016
New Tortoise Conservation Center Offers New Hope to Thousands of Tortoises in Southern Madagascar
by Howard Goldstein, Rick Hudson and Christina Castellano The unprecedented upsurge in tortoise poaching in Madagascar has seen TSA and its allies respond stronger than ever, with record numbers of confiscations at the Ivato International airport in Antananarivo and in villages throughout Madagascar. As thousands of endemic Radiated Tortoises (Astrochelys radiata), as well as Spider Tortoises…
Read MoreRafetus Swinhoei Update
It is with great disappointment that TSA must report that the latest attempt to artificially inseminate the last known female Yangtze Giant Softshell Rafetus swinhoei, has proven unsuccessful. With only three known individuals remaining, two in captivity in China and one in a lake in Vietnam, R. swinhoei has the dubious distinction of being the…
Read MoreNAFTRG Adds Wood Turtle Study Site
by Jordan Gray What do you get when you add a group of gung-ho turtle enthusiasts, hours of satellite reconnaissance, hundreds of emails, permit applications and cool montane streams? Wood turtles…and a gaggle of other chelonians to boot. Such was the goal when Eric Munscher, Director of the Turtle Survival Alliance’s North American Freshwater Turtle Research…
Read MoreTurtles Added to Assurance Colony in Belize
by Howard Goldstein The Hicatee Conservation and Research Center (HCRC) is a captive breeding and research facility for the critically endangered Central American River Turtle Dermatemys mawii, locally known as the Hicatee. It is part of the joint TSA and Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE) Hicatee conservation program, and located on the grounds…
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