More Than Half Of The World's Turtles & Tortoise Species Now Face Extinction
On the island of Madagascar, locked gates, razor-wire fences, and 24-hour armed guards protect one of the world’s rarest treasures. That treasure, worth roughly $50,000 each on the black market, is the last wild population of the critically endangered ploughshare tortoise, the rarest tortoise on the planet. The ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora) is emblematic of a growing crisis: more than half of the world’s turtle and tortoise species are now threatened with extinction.
A critically endangered ploughshare tortoise (Astrochelys yniphora). Photo by NTF30 (CC BY-SA).
A group of 51 global turtle and tortoise experts has published a new paper in Current Biology on the extinction risks for these iconic animals. Threats include the pet trade, overconsumption for food and medicine, loss of habitat, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. The group also offers recommendations to reverse the decline.
Of the 360 known turtle and tortoise species, 187 are threatened, according to the IUCN Red List criteria. Of these, 127 are endangered or critically endangered. Many could go extinct this century. “It is overwhelming when it’s all put together,” said Kristin Berry, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) wildlife biologist and co-author of the paper who has studied tortoises for more than 40 years.
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Native to Madagascar, the critically endangered Radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) is threatened by poaching for the pet trade. Photo by Turtle Conservancy/Eric Goode.
The demand for turtles and tortoises as pets is growing, primarily in Asia. Rare species are seen as status symbols and collectors’ items and are sold for hundreds to thousands of dollars. Authorities estimate millions of freshwater turtles and tortoises are exported from North America, Europe and Africa each year. Turtle farms supply a vast number of animals to markets, but many are still captured in the wild. Turtle farming for food and medicinal markets is an enormous industry. In Southeast Asia, hundreds of millions of Chinese softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis) are bred for the table. Asian box turtles, such as the Chinese three-striped box turtle (Cuora trifasciata), are both captive bred and collected from the wild for their supposed medicinal value. More than 1,500 turtle farms exist in southern China alone.
Chinese softshell turtles (Pelodiscus sinensis) are widely farmed for food. Photo by Clunio (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/turtles-and-tortoises-in-trouble-more-than-half-of-all-species-face-extinction/
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