Current Activities

This section of our web site is intended to provide information on current activities and to discuss programs which become quickly dated. We also use this space as an informal bulletin board for temporary updates of various portions of the other pages on this site. If you have information you wish to post and it deals directly with chelonian conservation, or with our existing programs, forward it to TorResInc@aol.com.

A day long workshop conducted to develop action plans for the long range protection of the bog turtle habitat in Maryland was hosted by The Tortoise Reserve, Inc., Jug Bay Wetlands Sanctuary, and Conservation International. More information and a published summary are available here.

New Programs: We have initiated the publication and distribution of Asian Turtle Care Sheets. At this time we seeking knowledgeable people to compile information and to write accounts. For a sample format click here. To obtain a list of species for which we are seeking authors inquire at TorResInc@aol.com.

Alapattah Flats Turtle Preserve (Florida)

Geochelone elegans 9.10.23 (revised)
Heosemys grandis 0.1.0
Cyclemys dentata 0.0.2
Pyxidea mouhotti (1 ad)
Ocadia sinensis 0.0.2
Cuora a. amboinensis 0.0.3
Chinemys nigricans 0.0.2
Chinemys reevesii 2.1.0

In addition we have been involved meetings with the Ashton Biodiversity Institute and Conservation International concerning the Asian Turtle situation and have been invited to participate in a meeting in Texas in January 2001 addressing captive breeding efforts for these turtles. In August 2000 we presented a recognition award and donated $1,000 to Turtle Homes Asia for their efforts directed towards Asian turtles.

In August 2000 we became members of The Tortoise Trust USA
In October 2000 we became a member of the Gopher Tortoise Council

Since the information which appears on this site about our sanctuary program was written we have added a number of new sanctuaries to the program. Perhaps the most interesting, and certainly the best known is the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. Founded in 1893, it is the oldest continuing tourist attraction in this hemisphere. The site contains a large wading bird rookery (including endangered nesting wood storks), a number of species of turtles, and the world’s only complete living collection of crocodilians. A number of the crocodilians are part of species survival plan breeding groups.

Other new sites include sanctuaries in Georgia, Virginia and Uruguay. At the latter site the sanctuary houses captive breeding groups of a number of South American turtles including Phrynops hilari, P. williamsi, Hydromedusa tectifera, Acantochelys spix, Trachemys dorbignyi, and Geochelone chilensis. The breeding groups are used primarily for research and education. The number of sanctuaries in Florida, North Carolina and Maryland have increased. One new sanctuary in Florida is a sand pine scrub with a large population of gopher tortoises and our Maryland sanctuary program now exceeds 5,500 acres in the upper Chesapeake Bay.

Investigations on fossil tortoises associated with the White River Group in Sioux County, Nebraska.

This fall Dick Franz initiated a study of the fossil tortoises associated with the White River Group of sediments in the badlands of Sioux County, Nebraska. These sediments range in age from about 35 to 19 million years and span four Land Mammal Ages (Chadronian, Orellan, Whitneyan, and Arikareen). The tortoise study is part of a larger investigation on the fossil vertebrates of the Sioux County badlands by Bruce MacFadden and other staff members of the Florida Museum of Natural History. Upon visiting the site this fall, to his great surprise, Dick found, not only Stylemys nebrascensis in the Orellan sediments which have been known for at least 150 years, but also several undescribed tortoises from sediments above and below the tradional Stylemys layer. Mistakenly, it was assumed that fossil tortoises here were well-studied, given the longevity of scientific investigations (over the last 150 years) in this area. Originally Dick intended to study demographic patterns displayed in the fossil Stylemys population. But, it is now evident that he needs to first evaluate the taxonomic status of tortoises from the various aged sediments. With this in mind, he plans to return to Sioux County early next summer to resume collecting efforts in order to obtain more fossil materials with the intention of sorting through the taxonomic jumble and establish a more complete snapshot of the history of tortoises during the late Eocene and Oligocene epoch. Dick Franz is a researcher at the Florida State Museum and a member of the Tortoise Reserve's Board of Directors

We are in the process of completing slide sets for mid-western turtles, the reptiles and amphibians of Maryland, Delaware and DC, an elementary school version of our popular bog turtle slide program, and a set of 20 seaturtle slides.

We are preparing slide sets in our species profile series on diamondback terrapins (in partnership with the Terrapin Institute) and gopher tortoises (in partnership with the Gopher Tortoise Council).

Phase two. Raw editing of 15+ hours of footage, of our fourth coming video on the endangered arrau is completed. We are currently assembling and organizing video clips in the proper sequence for our 30 minute video. The video will be made available to public schools in Venezuela. The footage was taken in March 2000 when Joe McSharry volunteered his time, expertise, and equipment for our two week photo safari. We previously made a donation to Venezuela for teacher workshops on the arrau and the video is an outgrowth of that program. We hope to have this project completed by early spring 2001.

"I love fools' experiments. I am always making them."
Charles Darwin ca. 1880