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The Turtle Conservancy here in Southern California is one of the premier facilities for breeding critically endangered turtles and tortoises of the world. And thanks to their programs, the foundation for providing assurance colonies all across the globe is stronger than ever. After learning more about this on today's episode of Camp Kennon, I ask that you please go to turtleconservancy.org board and check out their other programs and do what you can to help support them and their important mission here at the Turtle Conservancy with director
Paul Gibbons. And today he's going to bring us inside the large greenhouse here where they house some of the rarest aquatic turtle species on Earth. We're going to find out a little bit about them and some of the conservation efforts that he has actually partaken in uh helping these animals out in the wild. So stick around. We'll see you on the other side. This is all right. So guys, it's no secret that I have been here many times before, but I wanted to show some of my viewers uh why this place holds a special place in my heart. And Paul really got a lot of respect for you because just past what was it this past uh summer? Yeah.
He actually partaked in a rescue operation for the first animal we're going to see here. And they are this is the Philippine pond turtle or the Palawan uh forest turtle. And this is a um it's Yeah, he was right here a second ago. Um, so this is a species where we thought there were maybe 2,2500 left in the wild and then last year we got an email that said they found 3,800 of them in a warehouse in southern Paloan Norway. So turtle the turtle community got together TSA uh turtle conservancy uh Charlie in the um TTPG I think helped out TTPG helped out lot
lot of turtle organizations all helped out and we all went to Paloan to help because this massive number of turtles and the directive from the ICN the turtle specialist group y was to put the turtles back in the wild so within a few days we had um over a thousand of them back. By the time I left 10 days later, we had um something like 3,000 of them that we had placed back in the wild. You know, I was actually at one of the TTPG meetings this past year and they actually had a story about what went down and I saw what they had to go through. Now, remember,
you're in, you know, a country that doesn't have a lot of resources and they had to build holding ponds and they really did a fantastic job, but it was definitely around the clock work. So, uh we'll we'll try and uh see one of those in a little bit. Get her back. Yeah, no worries, man. But here's I want to kind of bug you a little bit because one of my bucket list tortoises happens to be over here and um they are just one of the most endangered tortoise species as well. These are no are these still extinct in the wild? The story on these is that the wild
population reached a point where there weren't enough left to find each other anymore to mate. So, this is a determination that's not um it's not one of the official IUCN determinations, but we call them functionally extinct in the wild, biologically extinct in the wild. Gotcha. Because they're not reproducing. Yeah. There's no way that there were enough left to be able to sustain the wild population. And I should note that this is the Burmese star tortoise. So, you have the Indian star tortoise, you have the Sri Lankan star tortoise, and this species is uh from Southeast
Asia, what is now Myammar. Um, and I just love them because, you know, for me personally, where I live, uh, it's this species does better than some of the other Sri Lankan or the Indian. Um, these just seem to be, uh, a hardier, uh, species of the star tortoise. Yeah. As tortoises go, most tortoises are pretty adaptable, and people can keep a lot of different tortoise species without too much trouble, but the star tortoises are known for being more difficult, right? Definitely the Indian and the Sri Lankan are more difficult than Burmese stars,
but this is still not a beginner's tortoise. Oh, absolutely not. They're they're still uh they require a lot of heat. They require intense basking sites. Their um seasonality is very dry in the cool season and um and extremely wet during the wet season. So they And you've actually been to Myamar? I have. Okay. So that I mean just that alone, you know, really gives you a wealth of knowledge that most other people and keepers don't really have. So it's very important, you know, if you're really passionate about these animals, you know, get involved. Um, and I just want to
point something out. So come on down here, guys, and have a look at the uh the garage, if you will, of Platinoa. That's the Latin name of the Burmese star toys. That is just incredible. And they have some amazing outdoor enclosures as well. Oh, yeah. Weather permitting, they got a lot of This is winter time, so they sleep inside at night. Yes. Awesome. Well, I'm going to pull me away from these guys because you know I'm a pain in the neck. Paul, let's go look at some Ronnie Islands. So, we are now going to look at one of the uh rare snake necks. And I love snake necks.
You have a very gentle touch there, Paul. That was good. Good turtle catching, man. Um, so this I just love the eyes, right, on them. I mean, that's the most striking feature, you know, this beautiful ring around their eye. Um, so, you know, talk to me about these guys cuz I actually don't know much about them. I'm imagining that they're somewhere in Indonesia or I'm really not even sure where they come from. Well, the island that they come from, Roti. Okay. Yeah. That there's a on one end of that island there's uh the population was discovered
I think it was around 15 maybe 18 years ago and as soon as they the discovery was published in the scientific literature the population was post. So this is a species that was described by Andrew Rhodin. He's our chairman of the board, right? And it was one of those lessons about how we have to be very careful with site data and when people are describing new species, it's just classic traditionally to tell exactly where that species comes from. But in this day and age with, you know, with China being uh more disposable income there and what happens
is they start grabbing these animals for pets in a lot of cases. Um, so you know, unfortunately, we don't have any more left in the wild. And when you're talking about an insula species, I mean, that's disastrous because they're found only on this one island. So, uh, and we know that turtles and tortoises don't always have the best luck uh, with reproductive numbers, you know, right? These these ones re reach reproductive age at relatively young age. This these were hatched at the uh, Los Angeles Zoo and they're about 5 years old. And the female we palpated eggs. She has eggs
in it. Oh, fantastic. So, they're they're going to be adults and hopefully reproducing by age um 5 to six. Okay. So, that's good news for them. Okay. And they are sideneck species, guys. And I've said this on and on whether they're short necks or long necks. Only side necks are found in the southern hemisphere. So, they're they're found south on the equator or south. Uh and that's where you get this side neck where they pull their head into the side. Then one more thing that I think is interesting, Paul, if you would show them the plron and they're the only
the snake necks are the only ones that have the what is it called? The intra ghouer uh scoot right there. Yeah, that scoot right there. That's the only turtle species or that group of turtles are the only ones that have this little segment there. And I didn't touch it, so don't worry. I didn't touch it. You know, you mentioned the eyes and I one of the things about their eyes that's striking to me is that they can either look towards the side or they can use binocular vision towards the front. So if you look at them head on Yeah.
They can focus on you. Yeah. It helps them to be able to catch fish, I would imagine. So definitely. And that long neck is certainly not hurting them either to do that. So they can focus in on something. And uh they're really intense feeders. So incredible. All right. Well, you know what, Paul? We are officially going to get out of your hair. You got a lot of work to do here at the Turtle Conservancy. And thanks again for spending some time with us and uh the viewers at Camp Kennon and opening the doors. It's time now for us to go. We're going to grab something to
eat. We're going to let this gentleman go home to his lovely wife. All right. See you soon. You got
