Mike’s Turtle Net Picks

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Tortuga Gazette 46(4), July/August 2010

Tortoise Eye Examination
Aldabra tortoise eye-care slide show.

Giant Tortoises Released
Experimental release of 39 Galápagos tortoises on Pinta Island.

Tortoises Learn From Each Other
Study shows red-footed tortoises can learn by watching each other.

Two New Box Turtle Articles:

       • Eastern Box Turtle Field Notes

       • Shell Coloration Development

Endangered Sea Turtles at Risk from Gulf Oil Spill & Threatens Kemp's Ridley
On April 22, 2010, the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank about 50 miles SE of the Mississippi River Delta. Sea turtles hit badly.  STRP provides daily updates.

Sea Turtles of the Mariana Islands
Sea turtle conservation efforts in the U.S. Mariana Islands.

Sea Turtle Symposium Proceedings
Proceedings from the 2008 Loreto, Baja California, Symposium.

Feds Agree to Timeline on Tortoise Listing
Decision on Sonoran desert tortoise ESA listing expected in December.

South Australian Students Release Rescued Turtles
Be sure to watch the snake necked turtle video.

Man Held With 480 Tortoises at Bangladesh Airport
This star tortoise smuggling bust received lots of coverage. This one has a picture.

Radiated Tortoise Threatened with Extinction
Illegal hunting for meat and pet trade threatens Madagascar's radiated tortoises.

Wildlife Conservation Society Rarest of the Rare List
Ploughshare tortoise makes the 2010 Rarest of the Rare List.

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Tortuga Gazette 46(3), May/June 2010

New Tortoise Parasite
A new protozoan named Cryptosporidium ducismarci has been found to infect marginated, pancake, and Russian tortoises.

Caring For Jonathan
The authorities have decided it is high time that they learned how to care for Jonathan and the other three captive giant tortoises that have lived on St. Helena for the last 100 years…
(see picture of Jonathan) 

The Heat is On: Desert Tortoises & Survival
The new USGS desert tortoise video is now on line.

Goodbye Green Path North!
The controversial "Green Path North" power line has bitten the dust thanks to the economy.

Feds Commit $1.37 Billion for Ivanpah Solar Power Plant
Uncle Sam is going to give $1.37 billion to developers of the controversial solar power plant proposed in desert tortoise habitat in Ivanpah Valley.

Loggerhead Sea Turtle Populations Endangered
The U.S. is proposing to up-list threatened loggerhead sea turtle populations to endangered.

USA to Embargo Mexican Shrimp Over Sea Turtle Impacts
Starting April 20, the sale of wild shrimp from Mexico is banned under endangered species regulations that require the shrimp fishery to comply with U. S. turtle protection requirements.

Murray River Turtle Crisis
South Australia's Murray River turtles are in trouble as shallow lakes become more saline.

Cleaning up Hoan Kiem (Sword) Lake
Sludge is being pumped out of Hanoi's Sword Lake to benefit its famous giant soft-shell turtle.

Turtle Associated Salmonella Outbreak
The CDC describes a multistate outbreak of Salmonella infections from pet turtles that occurred in 2008.

Negev Tortoise Gets UN Attention
Last ditch effort to save Kleinmann's tortoise in the wild in Israel.

Uncovering a 6 Million Years Old Tortoise Shell
Click the picture to launch this slide show of an excavation.

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"Extinct" Floreana Island Giant Tortoises Found
Biologists have identified eight tortoises that are descended from an extinct Galapagos giant tortoise population prompting hopes of resurrecting the race. (Click this link for the journal article)

Darwin's Great Great Grandson on the Origins of "Creation"
One of Darwin's descendents blogs on the new movie "Creation".

Critical Habitat Proposed for Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtle
The Federal Government is proposing 70,600 square miles of Pacific Ocean off California, Oregon, and Washington as critical habitat for the endangered leatherback sea turtle.
(Click this link for the Federal Register notice)

Important Slider Book Online
Whit Gibbon's Excellent Life History and Ecology of the Slider Turtle Now Available On-line

Cold Stunned Sea Turtles Rescued...
Recent cold snap stunned 5,000 endangered sea turtles.

...And This Organization is Helping Treat Them
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center.

BioBlitz Aims to Protect Species in Utah
Utah's Gila monsters petitioned to join desert tortoises on the endangered species list.

Tortoises (Sarcasm Alert)
A little levity thrown at the ORV issue.

Tortoise Wins Race for Her Life
A sulcata in Australia gets a reprieve from a death sentence.

Desert Tortoises Succumbing to URTD in Utah
URTD outbreak worsens at Red Cliffs Reserve.

Will Galapagos Become the Pacific's Ibiza?
Galapagos threatened by tourism?

Giant Tortoise Dies at 146
Giant tortoise living in France dies at age 146.

Use of Ultrasound to Detect Heart Failure in Tortoises
Bristol Zoo's Sharon Redrobe wins award from the British Chelonia Group Oliphant Jackson Memorial Fund for a paper on the use of ultrasound to scan a tortoises' heart to detect failure and monitor treatment.

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Tortuga Gazette 46(1), January/February 2010

The Adventures of Finding Lolo
Galapagos Islands' school kids track giant tortoises.

Track Sea Turtles On Line
You too can have fun tracking sea turtles and many other species thanks to SEATURTLE.ORG.

Labrador Tracks Red-eared Sliders
Labrador trained to sniff out alien red-eared sliders to protect Australian native turtles.

Mycoplasmosis and Upper Respiratory Tract Disease of Tortoises
State of the art review of URTD by the University of Florida research team lead by Mary Brown and Elliot Jacobson.

Recent Desert Tortoise Surveys
Most recent report of range-wide monitoring of Mojave Desert Tortoise populations from the Desert Tortoise Recovery Office.

San Bernardino County Opposes Proposed Ivanpah Solar Plant
San Bernardino County joins environmentalists in opposing the proposed Ivanpah Solar Plant.

Epic Tale of a Greek Tortoise
Greek tortoise was captured during World War I by a Gallipoli survivor and brought back to New Zealand.

Turtles Are Casualties of Warming in Costa Rica
Global warming blamed for diminishing population of sea turtles at Playa Grande.

Darwin's Missing Notes
English Heritage seeks help to find missing Darwin notes.

It Could Happen to Anyone…
There was lots of coverage of a 400-pound tortoise named Mary not being a "she" after all. This version of the story comes with a slide show.

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Tortuga Gazette 45(6), November/December 2009

Sonoran Desert Tortoise Video
Tucson Fox News video on the Sonoran desert tortoise petition finding.

Desert Tortoise Conservation Center Under New Management
San Diego Zoo holds open house at the Las Vegas Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.

Fort Irwin Desert Tortoise Translocation Plan On Hold
The BLM will revise its environmental review of the Army's proposal to move 1,000 desert tortoises onto public lands.

Come, Thou Tortoise
Diane Baker Mason reviews Jessica Grant's comic novel, Come, Thou Tortoise.

Tortoise Diplomacy?
Seychelles "donates" two giant tortoises to Shanghai Expo.

Wildlife Smuggling's Pablo Escabar?
Interview of the notorious wildlife smuggler Anton Wong.

Turtle-Killing Fish
How buying six types of fish encourages the death of hundreds of loggerhead sea turtles.

Tortoise Inspires Man To Stay Sober
Unexpected benefit of owning a sulcata…

Wild Pigs Threaten Geometric Tortoise
Fortunately, pigs can't fly…

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Tortuga Gazette 45(5), September/October 2009

Ivanpah Valley Tortoise Habitat
Great Basin and Range Watch's photo log of desert habitat threatened by power plants.

Sonoran Desert Tortoise Challenges Developers
Proposed listing of the Sonoran desert tortoise generates controversy.

Twin Twin Star Tortoises…
Muenster Zoo hatches two sets of star tortoise twins.

Galapagos Tortoise May Become Oldest Dad
Lonesome George's love life featured on NPR radio spot.

Turtle Shell Evolution
How did turtles develop an outside ribcage?

Albino Green Sea Turtle
Photograph of an albino hatchling green sea turtle.

Centennial Tribute to Archie Carr
Archie Carr would have been 100 years old on June 16.

Trinidad Turtle Heroine
Trinidad activist saves leatherback sea turtle rookery.

California Amphibian and Reptiles
California to update list of herp species of special concern.

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Tortuga Gazette 45(4), July/August 2009

Do Solar Right
Send a message to promote solar energy while minimizing environmental damage.

Tortoise Fitted with Toupee
Lots of media coverage of this injured tortoise. Photographs illustrate another use for duct tape.

Ascension Island Blog
Field biologist’s daily blog from green sea turtle study site.

Have You Seen a Live Sea turtle?
International Sea Turtle Observation Registry allows you to post your sighting of a sea turtle and view a map of recent observations.

'Land of the Lost' Crew Gets Unexpected Company
Hollywood stereotypes the desert tortoise…

ESA Consultation Reinstated
Secretaries Salazar and Locke restore the requirement for government agencies to undertake scientific consultations to protect endangered species.

Winds of the Four Directions
A turtle plastron harbors some of the earliest writing.

Hunt for Britain’s Oldest Tortoise
The search is on for Britain's oldest tortoise.

Volunteer Efforts Help Hawaii Hawksbill Turtles
Increased Hawaiian hawksbill sea turtle nesting is evidence that protection is finally paying off.

Galapagos Tortoise Exhibit Remodel
San Diego Zoo gets $500,000 gift for Galapagos tortoise pen remodel.

Ploughshare Tortoises Poached
Another theft of these critically endangered Madagascan tortoises.

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Tortuga Gazette 45(3), May/June 2009

African Turtle Hitches Ride On Pope's Plane
Turtle accompanies Benedict XVI from Cameroon to Angola.

New York Reptile Poaching Ring Bust
17 people charged in reptile (including snapping turtles) poaching probe.

Surprise in Surprise Arizona
Tortoise Poses Midday Traffic Hazard - Hercules Escapes While Owners At Zoo.

The Galapagos Islands From Space
The Galapagos Islands were NASA MODIS Image of the Day on March 7, 2009.

Keeping Tabs on Wildlife Park’s Wildlife
Not strictly tortoise related although Aldrabra Tortoises get a mention, this fun article talks about the annual inventory of critters at England’s Cotswold Wildlife Park.

David Snow
Homage to David Snow, one of the founders of the Charles Darwin Research Center.

Tour around Darwin's Galapagos
BBC video and other materials from the Galapagos including video of Lonesome George.

Science Restored
Interesting editorial in the Journal Nature on President Obama's pledge to set US science in its rightful place.

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Tortuga Gazette 45(2), March/April 2009

The Complete Works of Charles Darwin
2009 marks the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s "On the Origin of Species". You can read it here for free along with all the other important works he penned.

Eating the Wild
New York Times Opinion Piece on human culinary habits.

The Tortoise and the Sun
Salon.com article on the desert tortoise and solar energy developments billed as "a showdown among environmentalists out West, where proposed solar-energy plants threaten the desert ecosystem".

President Bush as Shiva?
In this Podcast titled "Bush the Destroyer, Bush the Creator" Gordy Slack compares the outgoing President to the destroyer-creator god "Shiva" – for eviscerating the Endangered Species Act while also creating the largest ocean preserve in history as he leaves office. The ocean preserve is home to many endangered sea turtles.

Reduce Your "Plastic Footprint"
Wallace J. Nichols Offers Tips on Reducing Our "Plastic Footprint"

Encyclopedia of Life
The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) is an ambitious project to organize and make available virtually all information about life present on Earth.

Over the Sea to Skye…
Scotland may be too cold for turtles these days but the Isle of Skye has provided paleontologists with evidence of the earliest aquatic turtles in the form of four complete and two incomplete fossils of a turtle named Eileanchelys waldmani.

How the turtle's shell evolved
A newly discovered fossil from China sheds light on how the turtle's shell evolved. The fossil aquatic turtle, Odontochelys semitestacea, only had a shell covering its plastron.

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Tortuga Gazette 45(1), January/February 2009

New Home of the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles
The site features pictures and articles on many of the rediscovered, long believed extinct Seychelles giant tortoises and the rare Seychelles side-necked turtles.

Gilbert White's Pet Tortoise
Interesting, scholarly discussion of the tortoises of the genus Testudo. 

Tale of the Tortoises: Knoxville Zoo Helps Endangered Species Thrive
The Knoxville Zoo is home to 27 tortoise/turtle species and 225-230 individual turtles and tortoises.

Skeleton Of 12,000-Year-Old Shaman Discovered Buried With 50 Tortoises
One of many stories covering the archeological discovery of an early Middle Eastern shaman whose burial offers a fascinating twist on the value stone-age man placed on chelonians.

Wandering Desert Tortoises - Two News Stories

• Beloved desert tortoise returned to Cupertino home

• Butch the tortoise makes the big time, is joked about on 'The Tonight Show'
All joking aside, stories of lost and found pets such as these provide publicity that helps shape public opinion and attitudes to turtle and tortoises.