6th World Congress of Herpetology (Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil)
Jim Parham
From August 17th through August 22nd I attended the 6th World Congress of Herpetology in Manaus, Brazil organized by Richard Vogt from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia. The congress proved to be an excellent opportunity for me to meet colleagues I had previously just known from publications and emails. Several interesting symposia and talks provided a great environment to discuss the goals of BioSynC and the EOL as well as to develop ideas and enthusiasm for synthesis meeting proposals.
I was invited to the World Congress of Herpetology to give a plenary lecture entitled “Human impacts on the diversity, distribution, and systematics of turtles.” My talk summarized the many ways that humans impact turtles and how this modifies natural patterns. These impacts include cultural uses, habitat destruction and modification, the pet trade, and, most importantly, the direct harvest of turtles for food. One of my main themes was that while humans have been showing an increased curiosity about and ability to understand biodiversity over the past 300 years, during this time human population has exploded from just over half a billion to almost 7 billion. Anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity have grown accordingly and a combination of ethnographic, historical, and paleontological evidence demonstrate a shifting baseline in our understanding of turtle diversity, distribution, and abundance. In addition to harvesting wild turtles for food, one of the main ways that humans alter natural patterns of turtle diversity is through the industrial-scale farming of turtles. I discussed how this has led to genetic pollution, feral populations, and examples of confused taxonomy. My talk concluded with three recommendations for overcoming these distortions of natural patterns: 1) fieldwork; 2) museum-based research; 3) the development of rapidly accessible biodiversity databases such as the EOL.
After the congress, I participated in a week fieldtrip up the Rio Negro on a boat called the Enigma. This excursion was aimed at giving herpetologists an introduction into Amazonian biota, with an emphasis on turtles. During my week on the Rio Negro I saw many new (to me) species of amphibians and reptiles as well as macaws and river dolphins. I also observed that many of the human impacts on turtles that I had discussed in my talk also occur in the Amazon Basin. For example, in a small village one day’s boat ride northwest of Barcelos we found villagers butchering and eating rare big-headed turtles (Peltocephalus dumerilianus). While netting two species of Podocnemis (P. erythrocephala and P. sextuberculata), we noticed a highly skewed sex ration of ~90% males that might be evidence of the unsustainable harvesting of females at their nesting sites. Finally, we also visited a small, but developing, farm that is trying to raise Amazon giant river turtles (Podocnemis expansa) for profit.
Left: A local prepares a meal of a freshly-butchered Amazon big-headed turtle (Peltocephalus dumerilianus). Center: Me in my goofy congress hat with a boatload of six-tubercled Amazon river turtles (Podocnemis sextuberculata [lower inset]). We also netted red-headed Amazon river turtles (P. erythrocephala [upper inset]). Right: A turtle farmer with a giant Amazon river turtle (Podocnemis expansa).
Clearly, the dynamic interaction between populations of humans and turtles in the Amazon requires careful multi-faceted investigations including fieldwork and trade surveys. One of my goals as a postdoctoral researcher at BioSynC is to use the EOL to collate such relevant data on the biology and conservation of endangered turtles worldwide. Hopefully by making data on these species and problems rapidly accessible, the scientific community will better understand turtle diversity and therefore be better equipped to guide conservation efforts.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:04 am → this is a reallly cool subject to learn but how do you handle dealing with all the snakes an slimy ... Read it ↓
this is a reallly cool subject to learn but how do you handle dealing with all the snakes an slimy things.
February 1st, 2010 at 10:39 am → Hi Lessie, These scientists and researchers are pros and are very accustomed to handling snakes and turtles. It's a big part ... Read it ↓
Hi Lessie,
These scientists and researchers are pros and are very accustomed to handling snakes and turtles. It’s a big part of the job! Thanks for the comment and let us know if you have more questions.