TIMES FREE PRESS (Chattanooga, Tennessee) 10 September 08 Turtle Survival Alliance helps endangered turtles worldwide (Kathy Gilbert)
David Manser, a Dayton, Tenn., nurseryman, raises more than tropical fish and rare plant species.
Ponds & Plants, a nursery on Highway 27, is also the home of Burmese black mountain tortoises rescued from a Hong Kong food market, Vietnamese pond turtles that now live only in zoos and a pair of Greek tortoises with herpes.
Living in a small town in Southeast Tennessee has been no barrier to his efforts to help global species conservation, Mr. Manser said.
“We’ll breed these (animals) and, maybe, reintroduce them into the wild, or even give them to anyone crazy enough to keep these as pets, so we can get the demand on the wild population reduced,” Mr. Manser said.
Two out of three turtle and tortoise species worldwide are extinct, endangered or threatened, according to the Turtle Survival Alliance, a nonprofit tortoise and turtle conservation group.
People eat them for food, destroy their habitat for development or release species, such as pigs or rats, that eat turtles or turtle eggs, Mr. Manser said.
The alliance was created in 2001 and operates in nine countries. Members include private citizens, zoos, aquariums, field biologists and researchers.
“There’s a very important place for people in the private sector within the conservation effort,” said Dave Collins, curator of forests at Chattanooga’s Tennessee Aquarium. “We do a lot of conservation programs, but we can’t do everything.”
Mr. Collins has been a Turtle Survival Alliance member since the group formed in Fort Worth in 2001.
The aquarium works with the alliance to breed eight species of Asian turtle and the federally endangered yellow-blotched map turtle, found only in Mississippi’s Pascagoula River.
Last month, the aquarium reported the successful breeding of the rare Chinese Beal’s turtle for the second year in a row.
Mr. Manser, who builds habitats for zoo animals around the country, also travels the world to help the Turtle Survival Alliance breed endangered turtle species.
A former rugby player from North Barrowford, England, Mr. Manser moved to Dayton 16 years ago, when he was 23. His parents, Keith and Pauline Manser, followed him to Tennessee. He met his wife, Sarah, also a native of England, in Chattanooga.
Since discovering Mr. Manser’s talents at a conservation conference in 2004, the Turtle Survival Alliance has increased its requests for his skill and time.
Last year, Mr. Manser traveled to Burma and India to aid the Turtle Survival Alliance. He revamped the filtration system for a Burma zoo, said alliance co-chairman Rick Hudson, a conservation biologist with the Fort Worth Zoo.
“Dave’s big, and he was like a giant. People would just follow him around. He did all this PVC work, installed aeration spray bars, set up a new basking area and a new nesting area for the adult breeding group — he’s awesome,” Mr. Hudson said. “We wish we had more partners like Dave Manser.”
The alliance has scheduled a return visit with Mr. Manser in 2009, Mr. Hudson said.
Closer to home, Hermann’s tortoises from southern Europe, Greek tortoises from the Mediterranean (via the San Diego Zoo), pink-bellied sideneck turtles from Australia, pig-nose turtles from Australia and New Guinea, African mud turtles and Vietnamese pond turtles and Black Mountain tortoises from Burma are being studied, sheltered or bred.
The Black Mountain tortoises are one of only two species of tortoise in the world that make nests of composting leaves, like alligators, Mr. Manser said.
Taken from wild collectors on their way to a food market in Hong Kong, the Burmese black mountain tortoises grow as large as 115 to 120 pounds. A common belief in Asian countries is long-lived tortoises, if eaten, extend human life.
As large prey, they are also a valued food source.
“I actually don’t have a problem with people eating turtles in a sustainable market, but it’s not really that way,” Mr. Manser said. “They take everything they can catch. Besides eating them, they make jellies out of their shells, and when they kill them they cut into their shell while the animal is still alive, which is a terrible (painful) thing to do.”
North American turtles are often exported to Asian countries for food and medicinal purposes, too, he added.
“Millions of tortoise and turtles are exported out of the U.S. It has made a terrible impact on the natural resource here,” he said.
Anyone can join the Turtle Survival Alliance, Mr. Hudson said. More information is available at www.turtlesurvival.org.
Turtle Survival Alliance helps endangered turtles worldwide