Migrating turtles given help navigating Canberra nature reserve

Volunteers have been doing turtle patrols at the Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary at Forde over the summer, including Christmas Day.

On a daily basis, they have found several creatures stopped at the sanctuary's predator-proof fence on their way in search of food, water or a mate.
"It just seems to be their natural instinct to migrate at certain times," general manager of the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust Jason Cummings said.
"But the turtles can get stuck at the fence and for whatever reason they don't turn around and go back to where they came from.
"So they will stick there and try to poke their way through but they can't get through."
The Woodlands and Wetlands Trust has also secured $1.2 million in Commonwealth, ACT Government and community funding to help it triple the size of the sanctuary.
The planned expansion would take it from 400 hectares to 1,200 hectares over the next 12 to 18 months.
"It means we can have more bettongs for example and more bush stone curlews," Mr Cummings said.
"But also we can bring other species back, species that are larger and require larger home ranges in a bigger sanctuary."
Mr Cummings said this would make Mulligans Flat the leading sanctuary for the box-gum grassy wetland ecosystem.

He said the group was still looking for donations and would need more volunteers as the fence expanded.

Veteran Takes Bullet To Protect Baby Sea Turtles

A Florida retiree went the extra mile to protect sea turtles — and got shot for it.

Stanley Pannaman, 72, spends his nights volunteering with a wildlife group that watches over sea turtle nests near Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida. The volunteers make sure no one bothers the nesting mothers or the babies, and help the little ones get to the ocean once they hatch.

On Friday night, the night watch took an odd turn when an allegedly intoxicated man confronted the turtle watchers. "He was saying things like, 'I hate sea turtles, I hate sea turtle people, you eff eff eff people are destroying my life, I hate you,'" Pannaman told the Sun Sentinel.
The man, who has been identified as Michael Q. McAuliffe, 38, then ran to a nearby nest, screaming, and began to tear down the sticks surrounding it and to kick at the area. He threw a punch at one volunteer when they warned him he was breaking the law, the New York Daily News reported, then set his sights on Pannaman.

Pannaman, a Vietnam vet who uses a cane to walk, pulled out his gun to warn McAuliffe away, then placed it back in his pocket. But McAuliffe didn't stop. Hereportedly tackled the former Marine, pushing him into the sand and punching him in the head.

He then grabbed Pannaman's gun, which McAuliffe called a "flare gun," and tried to shoot Pannaman in the chest. The veteran pulled away just in time so the bullet hit his waist, sparing his life.


                       
Fortunately, Pannaman survived and is recovering at home, while McAuliffe waits in jail facing multiple charges. But Pannaman says he doesn't regret anything, and will be back out protecting the turtles as soon as he can.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think monitoring sea turtle nests was going to be a life-threatening experience," he told the Sun Sentinel.


                   
Florida is a major nesting ground for five species of sea turtles; of those five species, one is threatened, two are endangered and two are critically endangered. Volunteers like Pannaman can make all the difference, as saving the life of even one sea turtle can be crucial to the species' survival.

Raine Island's baby turtles at risk from rising sea levels

The research, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, found that rising sea levels could threaten the viability of turtle eggs and lower the number of baby turtles successfully hatched.

It analysed one of the largest green turtle populations in the world, on Raine Island near the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef.
Researchers involved set out to determine what effect rising sea levels might have on turtle eggs when they were laid. Taking eggs from Raine Island to a lab, they inundated select groups of eggs with saltwater for up to six hours at a time.

They found that eggs that were inundated with saltwater for six hours or more were up to 30 per cent less likely to hatch.
"Short periods of saltwater inundation, such as those associated with high tides during severe storms, substantially lower green turtle egg viability," the study authors wrote.

James Cook University's Dr David Pike, lead researcher of the project, said the saltwater findings could have implications for sea level rises as a result of climate change.

"We are trying to anticipate the early effects," he said. "In some places it only takes a small rise in sea levels, when combined with a storm or a king tide, to inundate what had previously been secure nesting sites."

He said human intervention may be necessary to protect green turtles in future.
"People love turtles and it is possible to mobilise large numbers of volunteers to physically move the nests further inshore. We might be able to save them with people power. The Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection has also been out moving sand around the island to provide turtles with higher elevation nesting sites," he said.

Dr Kathy Townsend from The University of Queensland's Moreton Bay Research Station said the study was indicative of alarming climate changes worldwide.
"That is one of the issues that isn't just happening here in Australia but is happening around the world," Dr Townsend said. "If the sand temperatures get too hot they can basically cook the eggs, the young won't be able to survive that either."

Dr Townsend said that turtles may start migrating south, where sand temperatures are cooler.

Dr Pike said according to the current sea level trend, in as little as 50 years Raine Island and other small islands with turtle hatching ground could be inundated.


"The prediction is that within the next 50 to 100 years, with rising sea levels, the islands may be lost."

Canadian man caught trying to smuggle 51 live turtles under his clothes

A Canadian man taped 51 live turtles to his legs and groin and tried to hide them under sweatpants in an attempt to smuggle the reptiles over the Detroit border crossing, according to federal prosecutors in Michigan.
The man was captured as part of a surveillance operation conducted by US Fish and Wildlife Service agents. An official with the service said there has been an increase in turtle smuggling in the last year, which they attribute to demand in Asian food and collector markets.
“These turtles, by the time they get to the end-collector, they can be worth anywhere from $1,300 to $1,500 a turtle,” said Ed Grace, deputy chief law enforcement officer with the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Prosecutors say Kai Xu and Lihua Lin attempted to smuggle several species of North American pond turtles out of the US and into Canada.
On 5 August, two fish and wildlife agents say they watched Xu disappear behind two semi-trailers in a Detroit parking lot for about 10 minutes before reappearing with, “irregularly shaped bulges under Xu’s sweatpants on both legs”.
Xu was later stopped by Canadian border patrol after he drove through the Detroit to Windsor, Ontario crossing. Xu’s attorney, Timothy Debolski of Garden City, Michigan, said it’s too early to comment on Xu’s case. Agents said they were tipped off by a Detroit UPS employee identified only as “Dave”, who alerted agents to a seven pound box labeled “live fish keep cool”.
In an indictment of Lin, agents said they surveilled Xu as he drove Lin to the Detroit Metropolitan Airport on Tuesday. Lin was bound for Shanghai. He checked two bags, in which fish and wildlife agents say they found more than 200 live turtles, including the protected spotted turtle.
Fish and wildlife service agents say turtles are far from the only North American animals targeted by poachers.
A spokesman for the fish and wildlife office, Gavin Shire, said agents sometimes find hummingbirds smuggled in wigs, and that rattlesnakes and Gila Monsters are also popular prey for smugglers.
“Not just with turtles, I see it with ginseng, I see it with how wildlife in the United States can be, you know, coveted by collectors or for food markets,” said Grace.
Both men were indicted on illegal smuggling charges and violations of the endangered species act. The turtles were seized by fish and wildlife agents.

Pig-nosed turtle is too cute for its own good, says new report

The global illegal animal trade is taking its toll on vulnerable species, among them a small and distinctive reptile you might have seen featured in news stories for being smuggled aboard airplanes in people’s trousers. According to a newly released report by Traffic, an international watchdog group that monitors the wildlife trade, the rare pig-nosed turtle is under dire threat from exotic pet enthusiasts.
According to Serene Chng, programme officer at Traffic’s Kuala Lumpur office, the reptile is in high demand from pet traders - including online traders - in Europe, the United States and Asia. It can be found only regionally in Australia and Papua and is categorized as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The pig-nosed turtle - named for its porcine snout – is especially appealing to pet traders because of its “uniqueness”, explains Chng: “They are the only surviving species of the family they are in. They come from a restricted range, so it is very exotic to own [them]. And the hatchlings are very attractive and very cute.” The species can grow up to 50 lbs and two feet in length over the course of its 40-year lifespan.

The new report on the state of the species finds that within a 10-year period (2003-2013), 80,000 pig-nosed turtles were confiscated in some 30 seizures, including a massive bust of 8,368 turtles in an array of suitcases in Papua and Jakarta, Indonesia, last January. “Chances are there is a lot more illegal trade happening that isn’t being reported or caught,” Chng says.
The illegal animal trade constitutes an estimated $10bn global industry, according to the Humane Society. Numbers on the illicit exotic pet trade are hard to come by, but Peter Paul van Dijk, director of Conservation International’s turtle conservation program, speculates that it’s roughly $1bn annually - and growing. And although turtles have been a mainstay of illegal trade for at least 20 years, the turtle trade is “quietly growing in the US,” according to van Dijk. “There is greater demand and an increased opportunity to buy turtles in pet stores”, he says.
China has one of the biggest thirsts on the globe for pet turtles, says Ross Kiester, Chief Scientist at the Turtle Conservancy. “The pet trade is definitely increasing and you see that as the Asian countries become more wealthy. 20 years ago in China, no one could afford turtles as a pet - and now everyone can.”
According to Chng, millions of turtles and tortoises are being shuttled around the globe annually for the pet trade. She says there’s an accelerating trend of exporting turtles by packing them into checked luggage on international passenger airlines. Smuggled animals are usually babies because of their smaller, more transportable size. Nearly 20% of turtles die while being smuggled.
According to the report, Papuan villagers are plucking upwards of 2m pig-nosed turtle eggs from their riverside nests annually. Because hatchlings tend to bring more money than the turtle eggs, some Papuan collectors and “immigrant traders” incubate [the turtles] in hatcheries. Hatchlings can sell on the international market for $39-$56 each.
This wasn’t always the case. Papuans once hunted the eggs solely for food, in numbers that were more sustainable. But the high market prices have made the turtle much more valuable as a commodity than a food source. Furthermore, turtle traders are enticing Papuan communities with expensive turtle-hunting gear, like motorboats.
The pig-nosed are one of a number of turtles that are in danger because of their exotic attributes. Other sought-after species include the Indian star tortoise, the black spotted turtle, the radiated tortoise and the ploughshare tortoise.
The vast, illegal trade in wildlife operates for a number of reasons. It begins with a basic lack of oversight and regulation, “meaning no one is watching it or there is corruption going on or papers are being forged”, Chng explains. Some animals, such as the pig-nosed turtle, aren’t supposed to be traded if they are collected from the wild. But often, a trader will say that an animal is “captive bred”, meaning its parents were born in captivity as well. The problem is that the traders sometimes lie.
So what’s a conscientious consumer to do? “Ask for permits,” Chng says. “If it’s legally traded, the pet shop should have permits for the import of the species.”
Still, even if proper documentation is provided, it doesn’t mean there aren’t consequences. “For every turtle that they buy at the pet shop,” Chng says, “there are many dead turtles along the way.”
To avoid the extinction of the species, Chris Shepherd, regional director of Traffic in Southeast Asia, is calling for “urgent enforcement action in Papua”. Governments must increase the number of inspectors along the international points of trade chain in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, mainland China and Hong Kong, he says. Shepherd also advocates for international public awareness campaigns and “efforts to address socio-economic issues that drive the illegal trade in this distinctive but imperiled species”.
Christina Russo is a freelance reporter and public radio producer covering animals and wildlife.