Mexico finds 15,000 turtles in crates bound for China Mexican authorities said Tuesday they have seized a shipment of 158 wooden crates bound for China containing about 15,000 fresh-water turtles, some of them endangered. The environmental prosecutors´office said the crates were found at a freight facility on the outskirts of Mexico City. The turtles included white-lipped mud turtles, Mexican giant musk turtles, narrow-bridged musk turtles […]

From sea turtles to sunsets, the surprising ways the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the environment The stay-at-home orders mean fewer tourists on the beaches in Florida and fewer boats, fishing and cruise ships in the waters off the coast. That makes conditions prime for nesting leatherback sea turtles and their hatchlings. Turtle News From Around the World Conservation India: Morjim sees highest ratio of sea

Evolutionary trees can’t reveal speciation and extinction rates Evolutionary-tree diagrams, which are often used by scientists to study the branching relationship between species, are commonly used to estimate the rate at which species, such as turtles and tortoises, go extinct and when new species arise (speciation). However, new research casts doubt on this approach. The issue arises as this work has shown it’s difficult to

Olive ridleys day-nest in Odisha after seven years, but no link to lockdown say experts The eastern Indian state of Odisha is known for seasonally hosting Olive ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) en masse as they visit the seashore along the Bay of Bengal for mass nesting. This spring, however, heralded a surprise for marine conservationists, who witnessed mass nesting of the species during the

Turtle trackers: Environmental DNA used to detect rare species Ethan Kessler, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois has been utilising a new scientific technique to detect the presence of rare or elusive turtle species. He and his collaborators are testing the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to detect alligator snapping turtles (Macrochelys temminckii) in the southern Illinois river system. To catch the full

After 20 years in captivity, Yoshi the loggerhead sea turtle has traveled 37,000 km in 2 years “We did not know all that much, but she crept into everybody’s hearts, and settled down really quickly. “And she had an enormous personality.” The aquarium staff learned a lot about caring for injured turtles from Yoshi, but soon also started getting requests to help more and more