The first Black Marsh Turtle to hatch in a European zoo

The first Black Marsh Turtle (Siebenrockiella croassicolis) to be bred in a European Zoo has hatched at Bristol Zoo Gardens this summer. This rare turtle is the first offspring to emerge from a group of 10,000 rescued turtles destined for human consumption in the illegal Chinese food trade and confiscated from a ship in Hong Kong in 2001. Bristol Zoo Gardens was part of the rescue effort, nursing individuals back to life after they were discovered in appalling conditions.

Bristol Zoo Gardens’ baby Black Marsh Turtle is eight weeks old and is currently no bigger than a walnut, weighing in at 30 grams. Zoo keepers have been caring for the turtle in a humidity-controlled incubator, watching over its development from egg to baby. The turtle now appears to be lively and healthy and is already tucking in to hearty meals of chopped worms and snails. Its sex remains a mystery as it is too early to determine.

In the wild, the Black Marsh Turtle population is currently threatened by habitat destruction and over collection. These aquatic turtles are also a popular traditional dish in South East Asia and China. Recent commercialisation has led to this species being sold on the mass market, which has had a huge impact on population numbers. Each year, millions of Black Marsh Turtles are shipped from all over Asia to Macau in China. Bristol Zoo Gardens worked as part of a European-wide rescue effort to save the turtles once they had been confiscated.

The rescued group consisted of six species of aquatic turtle, only three of which survived, including the rare Black Marsh Turtle and Malaysian Box Turtle - both species are classified as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red Data Book. From the original group, some were sent to the States and approximately 1,000 were flown to Amsterdam courtesy of KLM on behalf of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA). Since the turtles could not be returned to the wild, the Turtle Survival Alliance requested that EAZA find permanent new homes for them. Around 20 EAZA Zoos in nine European countries have now provided new homes.

Tim Skelton, the Head of Reptiles at the Zoo, played an important role in the transportation and re-homing of 68 individuals. In January 2002, he drove to Amsterdam and back to collect the turtles and place them in five zoos across the UK (Bristol, Chester, London, Chessington and Jersey) as part of an international conservation-breeding programme to safeguard the future of these threatened species.

On arrival at Bristol Zoo Gardens, Tim Skelton and Sharon Redrobe, the Zoo vet, began a year-long regime of intensive medical care and keeper involvement. However, despite their best efforts, half of the turtles died from injuries or disease resulting from inhumane methods of capture and transportation within the Chinese food trade. A similar story unfolded across the other UK zoos involved.

Tim Skelton, Head of Reptiles at Bristol Zoo Gardens comments: “I’m very pleased to have played such an active role in this rescue mission. The Chinese Food Trade is as serious as the African bushmeat trade - many Asian turtle species have been over-exploited for many years because of the high prices they demand; the Golden-Coin Box Turtle is quite literally worth its weight in gold. Several hundreds of thousands of turtles are traded annually in China for human consumption. As a result, several turtle species are likely to become extinct. Conservation breeding is the only way that we can safeguard populations of these highly threatened species for the future.”

The Black Marsh Turtle, sometimes referred to as the ‘bad smelling’ turtle, has to reach five years of age before laying its first egg. Adult turtles lay one egg at a time, three or four times a year. The egg is big, almost 6cm by 3cm in size, and weighs 30 grams, double the size of a tortoise egg.

Bristol Zoo Gardens supports the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Shellshock Campaign 2004-2005, which aims to raise public awareness of the fact that turtles and tortoises face the biggest terrestrial vertebrate extinction event since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. The current IUCN Red List (IUCN, 2000) shows that, of the currently recognised 293 species of tortoise and freshwater turtle; 10 are Extinct or Extinct in the Wild; 24 are Critically Endangered; 49 are Endangered; and 64 are Vulnerable. All seven marine turtle species are listed as either Endangered or Vulnerable. Almost 100 species are still to be evaluated by IUCN and those that have are regularly being elevated to a higher status of risk as the crisis escalates.