Box Turtles In Peril From Black Market Madness

A law enforcement arrest of an illegal box turtle smuggler in South Carolina crawled to the top of the headlines in September.¬† “We work with 118 species of turtles and tortoises around the world, including 20 of the Top 25 most endangered turtles. The illegal trade of the Eastern box turtle is a hot topic […]

TSA Announces Grand Opening of the Tortoise Conservation Center in Southern Madagascar

by¬†Howard Goldstein¬† As the tortoise poaching crisis in southern Madagascar reaches epidemic proportions, good news there is hard to come by. However the official opening of the TSA’s Tortoise Conservation Center (TCC) on 7 October 2016 emerged as a beacon of hope for the beleaguered Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata). The TCC is a partnership between […]

Ultrasound Exams Predict Breakout Year for Hicatee Hatchlings in 2017

by¬†Howard Goldstein¬† The Hicatee Conservation and Research Center (HCRC) is a joint project of the TSA and the Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education (BFREE). The Center is located on the grounds of BFREE in southern Belize.¬† On 17-19 September, members of the TSA joined BFREE staff in Belize in performing annual health checks […]

Conference 2016

by¬†Howard Goldstein¬† 14th Annual Symposium an Overwhelming Success The Annual Symposium on the Conservation and Biology of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles‚Äîa joint venture of the Turtle Survival Alliance and the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group and the largest and most comprehensive gathering of turtle biologists, conservationists, and enthusiasts in the world‚Äîwas once again […]

Joko Guntoro Receives Disney Conservation Hero Award

by Howard Goldstein Aceh Tamiang, Sumatra, Indonesia, 11/13/2016 – Turtle Survival Alliance announced today that Joko Guntoro of Satucita Foundation has been honored with a Conservation Hero Award from the Disney Conservation Fund. The award recognizes local citizens for their commitment to reversing the decline of wildlife and engaging communities in conservation. Recipients from around […]

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 […]

Turtles 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 […]

NAFTRG 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 […]

Assurance Colony for Eyed Turtles Brings Hope in Myanmar

by¬†Kalyar Platt¬† Earlier this month the TSA/WCS Myanmar Turtle Team transferred 24 Burmese Eyed Turtles (Morenia ocellata) to a recently established assurance colony near Bago, about 45 miles north of Yangon. The turtles had originally been rescued by Win Ko Ko from a monastery pond in Rakhine State. The turtles immediately took to their new […]

NAFTRG Update

by¬†Howard Goldstein¬† Given the TSA’s involvement all over the globe, it can be easy to forget that the United States is the turtle capital of the world, with the greatest number of chelonian species of any country. Although turtles as a group are fortunately far more secure in the U.S. than in most of the […]

Interview with TSA’s Sheena Koeth

by¬†Howard Goldstein¬† Sheena Koeth is the Veterinary Care Manager for TSA, and has spent the last half of August in Madagascar, visiting and evaluating TSA’s tortoise confiscation centers. Q: What were the goals of this trip? I went to southern Madagascar to assess four different facilities that we oversee and to mentor the veterinarian in […]

UPDATE – NAFTRG Florida Sampling

by¬†Chris Clark¬† Not all of the NAFTRG sampling events have succombed to hurricane Matthew! ——————We will be moving ahead with the Weeki Wachee Sampling THIS WEEKEND!! We will meet at Weeki Wachee Park by 3:30 on FRIDAY at the lagoon beach and hope to get into the water after the last mermaid show between 3:30 […]