AIKEN STANDARD (S Carolina) 27 August 07 Gibbons receives turtle conservation award from group
(Suzanne Stone)
The Savannah River Ecology Lab's Whit Gibbons has recently received the 2007 Behler Turtle Conservation Award for his conservation efforts in the Savannah River area.
The 2007 award is the second year the prize has been given out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources' Turtle Survival Alliance and Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. The award was presented in July at the Fifth Annual Symposium on Conservation and Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Atlanta, by IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group chair Anders Rhodin and Turtle Survival Alliance co-chair Rick Hudson.
"It's from an international conservation award that is given by the Turtle Survival Alliance and IUCN, and I think the reason I got it is not really anything I did but the people who have worked with me, students, conservationists and scientists who I've been associated with. A lot of my students have gone into conservation and worked with turtles, like Kurt Buhlmann who's done a lot with turtle conservation, Cris Hagen, and Tracey Tuberville. The way I look at it, they get the credit," said Gibbons. "They've all done a lot with turtle conservation and I think there's lots of people deserving of that kind of award. It's not a one-man show."
The award was named and created in honor of the late herpetologist John Behler, curator of herpetology for the Bronx Zoo, who had served as chair of the IUCN Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Behler died in 2006.
Gibbons was chosen for the Behler Award for his long career as professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, where he has taught herpetology since 1978. He is a senior research scientist and head of the environmental outreach and education program at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. His publications include 2005's "Snakes of the Southeast," and his new book "Turtles of the Southeast," due in bookstores in February.
Gibbons receives turtle conservation award from group