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W von Papineäu
at Tue Sep 20 19:25:33 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]
HAARETZ (Tel Aviv, Israel) 20 September 05 Wildlife reserves return endangered turtles to central plain (Eli Ashkenazi)
Photo: Yoram Malka of the INNPPA holding baby turtles to be released into the Ein Afek reserve. (Yaron Kaminsky)
Yoram Malka, an employee of the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INNPPA), held up a few baby turtles for the cameras surrounding him. Giselle Hazan, of the Ein Afek Nature Reserve, was already waiting joyously in the wings. Malka was on the verge of transferring 17 of the tiny charges he had hatched, raised and guarded to the new reserve, which was awaiting their arrival.
The transfer of the Nile soft-shelled turtles (Trionyx triunguis) to the Ein Afek reserve is another step to save the species from going extinct in the coastal plain rivers. The goal is to wean them from their shelter in the Hula Nature Reserve, which is not their natural habitat.
The soft-shelled turtle has a flat body, an elongated neck and bulging eyes. Its brown, white-spotted coloring provides ample camouflage. All of these characteristics assist the turtle in obtaining food, as it buries itself in mud and stretches its neck to capture passing prey.
Feared to be in imminent danger of extinction in Israel, the soft-shelled turtle was brought to the Hula reserve by the INNPPA and zoologist Heinrich Mendelson in the late 1960s and early 1970s in order to save it from the increasing pollution in the coastal plain rivers. At that time the species was disappearing at an alarming rate, and was placed on the endangered list in the Mediterranean region. Hunting, predators, habitat destruction and river pollution reduced the population in Israel to about 100 animals.
The turtle is still on the endangered list, but the move to the Galilee region revived the population, which had disappeared from the coastal plain.
Talia Oren, an ecologist at the Upper Galilee regional branch of INNPPA, said, "The belief then was that the turtles would be safe in a nature reserve. But they were not aware that there are no turtles of this type in Israel's eastern basin. The turtles were comfortable here and they multiplied, but over the years it became clear that they were detrimental to the local ecosystem."
Turtles were observed climbing the banks, where they damaged a variety of nesting sites, at times eating seagull eggs, and caused widespread damage to the ecosystem due to their predatorial nature.
Several of these turtles even escaped the reserve and were observed in other bodies of water in the north. A highly motivated turtle was spotted in the far-off Jordan Valley. It had crossed the entire Sea of Galilee and moved south, to march the entire length of the Kibbutz Degania Aleph perimeter road.
According to Oren, "We now recognize that the turtle is an intrusive species in the Galilee that must be removed from the ecosystem. We must assist nature and repair the damage." The "expulsion" of soft-shelled turtles from the Hula reserve is accompanied by renewed hope that they will survive the transfer to their natural habitat in coastal plain rivers, where their presence is no longer guaranteed.
Some of the turtles were trapped in nets dropped into the water for this purpose, but most were caught before they hatched. Female turtles lay and bury their eggs at night on the dirt paths in the Hula reserve. Malka gathers the healthy, intact eggs in the morning, hoping that they have not been crushed by water buffaloes or eaten by mongooses. Malka uses a prodder to uncover the nests and carefully collects the eggs, which resemble ping-pong balls, in a bucket full of local earth. If he places an egg in the bucket upside-down, the turtle's fate is sealed and the egg will not hatch. The eggs are taken to an incubator, where natural nesting conditions are perfectly reproduced: under sunlight, in natural earth, in a confined area.
After 60-70 days, the eggs hatch and the tiny turtles run swiftly toward the water - in this case, small pools placed near the incubator. Later, the turtles are to be transferred to coastal rivers, including the Sorek, Neeman, Yarkon and Kishon rivers. (They will be introduced at the northern, clean end of the Kishon.)
There are now about 100 turtles in the Alexander River, which marks a resounding success for the project. In 1992, the population in the Alexander took a severe blow when heavy flooding swept many of the turtles to the sea while they were hibernating. However, the population in the river has restored itself since then.
The INNPPA intends to keep 30 turtles captive in cages in the water of the Hula reserve. When they grow, they will be released in the rivers with tagging devices, and perhaps, even satellite broadcasters. "That way," Oren says, "we will be able to follow them, and gather information that we still do not have, like the percentage that survives, and migration between rivers and the sea."
Wildlife reserves return endangered turtles to central plain
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 ISR Press: Wildlife reserves return endangered turtles to central plain - W von Papineäu, Tue Sep 20 19:25:33 2005
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