Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins

by Orenstein, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9781552096055
• ISBN10: 155209605X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-09-01
• Publisher: Firefly Books Ltd

Summary

Turtles, almost alone among reptiles, have earned both human interest and affection. Our fascination with turtles, though, has not helped them much. Sought after for food, as pets, and for tortoiseshell, their habitats under attack on land and sea, turtle populations are in decline around the world. Understanding turtles is not only interesting, but also important.Turtles, tortoises, and terrapins have been on earth since the Triassic Period, approximately 200 million years ago. Their exact origins are uncertain, though - it is still unclear from which group of reptiles turtles sprang. Although the earliest fossils are clearly turtles, their anatomy has changed dramatically over time. In addition, turtle species vary greatly in such basic characteristics as anatomy and habitat preferences. Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins surveys the myriad of turtle anatomy, habitat, and life cycles throughout the ages.Human activities on the land and at sea pose the greatest threat that turtles have faced in the last 200 million years. The battle to save turtles goes on, and this book provides an important voice in turtle ecology. Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins is the perfect resource for anyone interested in all facets of these amazing and diverse reptiles.Contents include: What Turtles Are How Turtles Live Will Turtles Survive? Turtles of the World Turtle Watching How to Help Conserve Turtles

Author Biography

Ronald Orenstein is a zoologist, lawyer, and wildlife conservationist who has written extensively on a wide variety of ecology and conservation issues. He is currently the project director of the International Wildlife Coalition.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vi
A Word About Words	viii
Preface Why Turtles Matter	x
The Essential Turtle	1	(24)
Turtles in Time	25	(24)
Turtles Around the World I: Side-necks and Hidden Necks	49	(32)
Turtles Around the World II: Terrapins and Tortoises	81	(32)
Under the Hood	113	(24)
Life as a Turtle	137	(34)
Twixt Plated Decks	171	(34)
The Endless Journey	205	(32)
Peril on Land	237	(30)
Peril at Sea	267	(25)
Bibliography	292	(3)
Index	295

Excerpts

Preface Why Turtles Matter"Turtles," writes Anders Rhodin of the Chelonian Research Foundation, "are in terrible trouble."Few herpetologists -- the scientists who study reptiles and amphibians -- would disagree with him. There is hardly a place left on earth, on land or sea where turtles are safe. In some places, most particularly in southern Asia where forests and rivers are being swept clean of turtles to supply growing and voracious markets for food and pets, their situation is little short of desperate. Some species have probably already disappeared; more will almost certainly do so, despite efforts we make to save them. Pollution, habitat destruction, overhunting, climate change, and disease strike at species after species. Populations of the largest turtle in the world, the leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), collapsed throughout the Pacific Ocean during the last five years of the 20th century. Poachers are stealing the beautiful radiated tortoise (Geochelone radiata), even from national parks. The unique Central American river turtle (Dermatemys mawii), the only living representative of its family, is being eaten out of existence.There is more to turtles than most of us know. We think of them as the quintessence of slowness. When Camille Saint-Saeuml;ns assigned music to the tortoise in Carnival of the Animals, it was Jacques Offenbach's famous cancan -- played at a glacial pace. But anyone who lets a careless hand get too close to an angry snapper or softshell will learn just how rapidly a turtle can move. The big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) of Southeast Asia can scale a slippery boulder or even climb into a tree. The pig-nose turtle (Carettochelys insculpta) of Australasia can dart away at four times the speed of a swimming human, and a sea turtle can fly through the water with balletic grace.Imagine that turtles had vanished long ago, with the dinosaurs, and we knew them only from fossils. Surely we would be amazed that such bizarre creatures, sealed in bone, ribs welded to their shells, had existed; had ranged successfully almost throughout the world, in desert, river, and forest, and far out into the open sea; had dug burrows that became homes for other creatures; had a role to play in the habitats where they lived. We would regret that we had missed the opportunity to see them plodding their way through ancient forests, beneath the feet of monsters.But turtles, unlike so many other reptiles of past ages, did survive, and for many of us they are a commonplace. Some of us think of them with amusement, as comic-strip characters, plush toys for children, or dancing, top-hatted figures on a box of candy. For others, turtles are a source of food and income, whether from selling a tortoise as a pet or showing tourists a sea turtle laboriously digging its nest in the sand. For some, turtles are even an object of veneration, to be protected and fed on the grounds of a temple. Humankind sees turtles as anything but what they really are: highly evolved, remarkable creatures, necessary components of their shrinking and ever more degraded ecosystems. We in the West have ceased to be amazed by them.I have written this book because turtles do amaze me. I am not a herpetologist but an ornithologist, a student of birds, and turtles were always on the periphery of my attention. I could not help, though, collecting bits and pieces of information about them, and the more I learned the more astonished I became at the sheer range of adaptation in such superficially humble creatures.As I have gone on from ornithology to a career in wildlife conservation, and a lobbyist's role in dealing with the excesses of the interna