• A varied selection of recent articles, stories and sites on the Web that is compiled by Michael J. Connor, Ph.D.
  • The links are listed as published in the relevant issue of the Tortuga Gazette.
  • Please note that all links were functioning when posted. My apologies if any are no longer available. Disabled links are present for informational purposes.

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Tortuga Gazette 46(1) | January/February 2010

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.

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.

Tortuga Gazette 46(2) | March/April 2010

"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 is now available online.

Cold-stunned Sea Turtles

• 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 Galápagos Become the Pacific’s Ibiza?
Galápagos 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.

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.

Meet Jonathan, St. Helena's 182 year old giant tortoise
Jonathan and several other giant tortoises live at the home of Mark Capes, Governor of the British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic.

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.