Today, May 23rd, is World Turtle Day. It’s a day to “shellebrate” and protect all turtle species and their disappearing habitats around the world. Turtles are taxonomically described as reptiles with hard shells. This includes turtles, tortoises and terrapins. Learn more about the tortoises and terrapins we are protecting at our Ukuwela Reserve in South Africa in our latest blog.

A leopard tortoise (Geochelone pardalis) crosses a dirt road. Photo Credit: Shannon Wild / Wildscreen Exchange.

Turtles are one of the oldest species on our planet. Their chelonian shell is a 220-million-year-old adaptation that predates the origins of mammals and birds. They were around before the dinosaurs, and survived after the asteroid-induced mass extinction event 65 million years ago, which wiped out about 90% of life on land. Luckily for turtles, their marine homes and slow metabolisms enabled them to survive.

Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins - how to tell who is who? Turtles come in all shapes and sizes. While most of us refer to turtles as those that are at home in the sea, the taxonomic grouping for '“turtle” refers to all reptiles with a hard shell. This means that not all turtles are tortoises …but all tortoises are turtles ! What’s the difference? Tortoises live exclusively on land, while most turtles live in or near water.

Today, turtles and tortoises face another mass extinction event - what is being termed the 6th Mass Extinction - caused this time not by a massive asteroid, but by us. Humans and our impacts. Of the 360 known turtle and tortoise species, over half (187 species) are threatened with extinction according to the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. On this list, 127 are endangered or critically endangered meaning they are at the very edge of disappearing. After millions of years on our planet, they are losing the race to survive.

Why are we losing turtles and tortoises?

Turtles are slow. We all read about them plodding along in our childhood story books. It is also scientifically true: they grow slowly, mature late and live a long time. The oldest recorded Galapagos Giant Tortoise, nicknamed “Lonesome George”, lived an amazing 152 years until his death in 2012 and with him, the loss of his sub-species to extinction.

The turtle’s pace is a modern-day liability - they can’t keep up with extreme the pressures we are placing on them including habitat loss and degradation, over-collection of their eggs for food, the plucking of wild turtles from all corners of the globe for the international pet trade, as well as over-collection of turtle parts for use in traditional medicines.

And turtles being turtles, retreating into the shells and not dangerous or intimidating to humans means they are largely defenseless against poachers and the illegal wildlife trade. A shocking recent example of their devastating exploitation was reported last May. Mexican authorities confiscated more than 15,000 freshwater turtles packed in wooden crates and ready to be illegally shipped out to China for the pet trade. One illegal trade event almost caused the loss of 15,000 freshwater turtles from the wild. It only takes one of these events to decimate a species.

For those of us lucky enough to have seen turtles hatch from a beach, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime sight to see hundreds emerging at a time from a single nest, making their way on their tiny flippers to the ocean. Only a small percentage survive, but those that do can live up to 200 years. Most females lay eggs well into their older years. This means that the killing of an adult female turtle is not just an individual tragedy, it equates to hundreds of thousands of eggs that would have been laid across her lifetime. If enough disappear, the population will collapse. And with their slow maturity, recovering a turtle population is a slow journey (if possible at all).

Like so many threatened species today, loss of habitat, particularly their nesting habitats, is the greatest threat turtles they face collectively. The leading cause of habitat loss around the globe is changes in land and sea use by humans. Whenever we take over natural areas for our own use, we are encroaching on and damaging or destroying the habitat of other species. We are doing this at an alarming rate. 50% of habitable land on Earth has been destroyed for agriculture, with 90% for animal agriculture. We have taken over the planet, and we are taking up the last wild spaces, crowding out the space needed for biodiversity to survive.

What wild spaces are left are being cut into smaller islands of habitat, which ultimately cannot protect species from extinction over time. Habitat fragmentation is continuing at a rapid rate due to the expansion of towns, cities and highways. In South Africa, the fences that protect conservation areas block passage for smaller animals including tortoise and pangolins, effectively shrinking habitat for species who can’t move through this barrier.

Our ecologist Axel Hunnicutt was able to lend a helping hand to a Leopard Tortoise unable to get where he wanted to go due to an electrified fence blocking his way. Check out how this problem was solved (at least temporarily) for this individual leopard tortoise who was lucky to have Axel spot his dilemma while doing field research next door at Phinda Private Game Reserve.

How is Wild Tomorrow Fund helping tortoises and terrapins?

We are proud to protect 2 species of tortoise and 3 terrapins within our Ukuwela Nature Reserve:

The Leopard Tortoise (Sitgmochelys pardalis): pictured in Shannon Wild’s beautiful banner image and in the video above.
The Eastern Hinged-back Tortoise (Kinixys zombensis)
The Mashona Hinged Terrapin (Pelusios rhodensianus) which is Vulnerable to extinction regionally.
The Serrated Hinged Terrapin (Pelusios sinuatus) - loves to bask in the sun in rivers and on mud banks, or even on the back of sleeping hippopotamus!
The South African Helmeted Terrapin (Pelomedusa galeata)

The land that we are protecting, our Ukuwela Reserve, would otherwise have been lost as tortoise and terrapin habitat, converted for use for commercial pineapple farming.

Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Ukuwela Reserve also forms an important buffer of protection along the south bank of the Mzinine river, a major tributary into the False Bay section of UNESCO World Heritage iSimangaliso Wetland Park. By saving this land and preventing it from being slashed, burned and converted into a pineapple farm, we have prevented agricultural run-off including pesticides and other pollution from entering this precious and fragile wetland ecosystem.

*A Serrated hinged terrapin basking on the back of a hippopotamus. Photo credit: Bernard Dupont*

It’s incredible to have iSimangaliso as our neighbor. It truly is a place of global environmental beauty and significance - including for turtles. Sea turtles are one of iSimangaliso’s most iconic animals, with five of the world’s seven species found in the park’s waters. Both the huge leatherback turtle and the smaller loggerhead turtle breed along iSimangaliso’s shores, nesting in the beach sand dunes. Hawksbill and green turtles live on the reefs and sea grass beds as juveniles. The rare olive ridley turtle, the smallest sea turtle in the world, also enters the waters of iSimangaliso.

With all the threats facing turtles, the protection afforded by iSimangaliso’s newly expanded Marine Protected Area (MPA) is critical, and every nest that successfully hatches is a success for the future of these wonderful animals. We hope our guests that join us at the right time of year will be able to witness the spectacle of turtle hatching in this incredible part of the world - for humans and turtles.

*An Endangered Green Turtle swimming over a coral reef.. Photo Credit: Jeremy Bishop/WildScreen Exchange*

How can individuals help?

It is an escalating tragedy that over half the world’s turtle species are threatened with extinction. They are an ancient and beautiful species, one that came so long before us on planet Earth. Can they survive all the pressures we are placing on them and the coming impacts of climate change?

Everyone has a role to play in helping to protect turtle and tortoise worldwide by being aware of the risks involved in the pet, food and medicine trades, keeping dogs under control in important turtle habitats, and keeping off-road vehicles away from sensitive beaches and desert areas where turtles roam and nest.

And of course, by supporting conservation organizations that are helping to protect habitat for turtles, tortoises and terrapins.

REFERENCES

Stanford, C. B., Iverson, J. B., Rhodin, A. G., van Dijk, P. P., Mittermeier, R. A., Kuchling, G., … & Buhlmann, K. A. (2020). Turtles and tortoises are in trouble. Current Biology, 30(12), 721-735. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2020.04.088

12 March 2018. The Turtle Extinction Crisis. The Revelator. https://therevelator.org/turtle-extinction-crisis/

FROM TERRAPINS TO TORTOISES: CELEBRATING UKUWELA’S TURTLES