Bangladeshi tribe that’s guarding turtles, co-authoring research papers
In the beginning, Shahriar Caesar Rahman’s trips to the remote forests of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh would invariably end in frustration.
Rahman was searching for reptiles, and based on what the local people were telling him, the largely unexplored forests of the Hill Tracts seemed to be home to a wide variety of them and other wild animals. But he could find no visual proof to confirm the claims.
“They would tell me ‘Oh, we saw a gaur, we just ate a turtle, or we found this or that,’” Rahman, co-founder and CEO of the Creative Conservation Alliance (CCA), a nonprofit based in the capital Dhaka, told Mongabay. “I would ask them, ‘Do you have any evidence?,’ and they would say ‘No.’ So every time I would feel frustrated that they are telling me about all these species but I don’t have any proof.”
In the years to come, the local people did hand him plenty of evidence. All it took were a few point-and-shoot cameras and some training to build a team of indigenous parabiologists — people lacking in formal education but trained to carry out specific scientific tasks. These parabiologists quickly went on to catapult both the Hill Tracts, and Rahman, into the limelight.
Click the link to read more…
Turtle News From Around the World
Conservation
USA:- Behind the Exhibit: Newborn turtles helping to save several species (Video)
Crime & Punishment
India:- 6 African spurred tortoises seized in MP; two arrested
India:- 654 Indian flapshell turtles including 482 dead recovered from pond
Mexico:- Attorney General opens investigation into destruction of turtles’ nests
Ecology
Jakarta:- Dead Sea Turtles, Jakarta Examines Water in Thousand Island
Education
Research:- Diets of Two Nonnative Freshwater Turtle Species (Trachemys scripta and Pelodiscus sinensis) in Kawai Nui Marsh, Hawaii
Research:- Genetic analysis and satellite tracking reveal origin of the green turtles in San Diego Bay
Health & Medical
USA:- Loggerhead Marine Life releases “Honda” back into the ocean (Video)
Question or Concerns? Want to submit an article to get posted? Email us at [email protected].
Photo from Scott Trageser Photography/Creative Conservation Alliance.
