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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 155COMMENTARIES

South Carolina and Louisiana have major problems with some
of their senior citizens. As summer begins, Louisiana will have

begun to address the problem for one group. South Carolina will
still be seeking a solution for their denizens. The problem relates
not to AARP members but to turtles: How to control their
removal from the wild by commercial turtle trappers. Neither
state can afford to lose many more of their native turtles and keep
their natural heritage intact. Recent positive action by the
Louisiana senate regarding one species bears mentioning.

One of the most magnificent reptiles in America is the
Alligator Snapping Turtle (Macroclemys temminckii), a species that
is fast disappearing from southern rivers and swamps. The giant
turtle, one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world, gets big-
ger than the adults of some sea turtles. Typical adults can weigh
more than 100 pounds and the record is more than 200.
Alligator Snappers have a come-hither scam that operates quite
effectively with hungry fish. The turtle sits on the bottom with
its mouth open. Its bright red tongue wiggles like a worm. As
unsuspecting fish move in for a meal, they become a meal them-
selves when the unseen con artist slams its jaws shut.

Alligator Snappers inhabit the Mississippi River drainage
and are found as far east as southern Georgia, west to Texas, and
north to Indiana, although not in the Carolinas. Once they were
in virtually all large rivers throughout their geographic range.
Recently, their numbers were estimated to be less than five per-
cent of what they once were, and still declining. All but one state
(Louisiana) had passed laws to protect these mighty creatures
from the assaults of commercial trapping. I think it safe to say
that they are part of the natural world that most Americans
would like to preserve.

Louisiana may actually make that a reality. Louisiana Senate
Resolution No. 49 introduced by Sen. Robert J. Barham is “to
urge and request the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and

Are Alligator Snappers 
Out Of The Soup?1

J. Whitfield Gibbons

Savannah River Ecology Lab, Aiken, South Carolina

Alligator Snapping Turtles (Macroclemys temminckii) are fast disappear-
ing from southern rivers and swamps.

SU
ZA

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L.

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IN

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 C

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1 Reprinted with permission of the author and Partners in Amphibian
& Reptile Conservation (http://www.parcplace.org/).

• Vikings LLC in Marion County was approved to wipe out
470 tortoises for a 542-home golf course development, in
exchange for preserving 136 acres.

• In Palm Beach County, Wal-Mart got permission to bury five
tortoises in exchange for a whopping 1.49 acres of habitat.

Mitigation is always meager. A pending project in the Tampa Bay
area would obliterate 2,573 acres of tortoise habitat, yet under cur-
rent rules the developer is required to set aside only 168 acres. That’s
a net loss to the tortoises of 93 percent of their home territory.

News accounts about the tortoise-burying permits have
angered many Floridians and discomfited wildlife officials, who
admit that not enough is being done to save the reptiles. The
state now wants to expand tortoise preserves in the Panhandle,
which sounds like a plan, except that moving the critters hasn’t
worked. Studies have shown that most of the relocated newcom-
ers have died from respiratory disease or other ailments.

Process as Slow as the Tortoise
Four years ago, the FWCC staff proposed elevating the status of

the Gopher Tortoise to a “threatened species,” which theoreti-
cally would offer more protection from habitat loss. No action
was taken, and the sanctioned killings continued.

Several local governments decided there was no time to lose.
Lee, Collier, Martin, and Hillsborough counties adopted ordi-
nances that made it more difficult to destroy the species, even
with a permit.

On 7 June, the state wildlife commission convenes in West
Palm Beach, a public meeting at which the plight of the Gopher
Tortoise finally will be addressed. A key factor will be the “risk of
extinction,” which grows worse with every mass burial. If commis-
sioners agree that the species should be reclassified as threatened,
biologists and administrators will begin drafting a management
plan. It’s a process as slow and lumbering as the tortoise itself.

In the meantime, officials say they’re working with develop-
ers and landowners to deal with the “entombment issue,” which
has turned into a serious public-relations headache. There’s noth-
ing “incidental” about burying an animal alive. Just ask your
kids. They’ll know better.

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156 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 13, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2006 COMMENTARIES

Global Climate Change: 
Should You Care?

Gad Perry

Department of Range, Wildlife, and Fisheries Management
Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

About ten years ago, I was seated at a large lecture hall at Ohio
State University, waiting for an economist to talk about

environmental issues. It’s good to get a different perspective every
once in a while, after all. The speaker was clear: “I don’t believe
for a moment that global climate change is happening,” he stated
emphatically, then paused for dramatic effect. “But if it is,” he
continued, “all that means is that we need bigger and better air
conditioners!” Reactions in the room were mixed. About one
third of the listeners cheered, another third seemed unclear about
what he had said, and the final third were close to apoplectic. A
decade later, things have not changed much. Some people are still
warning that the future does not look good. The remainder
appears to be divided between those happy not to think about
environmental issues and an influential sector that pretends noth-
ing is going on or that bigger AC units will solve our problems.

So, does a problem really exist? Much of the U.S. political
and business leadership has spent the last decade or more claim-
ing either that climate change is not occurring or that it is occur-
ring as a consequence of natural processes over which we have no
control. Recently, this argument received surprising support from
author Michael Crichton. His 2004 book, State of Fear, used a
hunt for environmental terrorists as a device for bashing environ-
mentalists, and especially anything to do with climate change.
Sounding a lot like my economist, one of the characters stated
(p. 407): “The threat of global warming is essentially nonexist-
ent. Even if it were a real phenomenon, it would probably result

in a net benefit to most of the world.” Although climate scien-
tists have repeatedly shown the book to be scientifically lacking,
an adventure yarn is certainly entitled to have a preposterous
premise (consider some of Crichton’s other novels, such as Jurassic
Park, for which one must suspend any critical analysis to enjoy
the story). However, for the U.S. Senate to invite Mr. Crichton
to testify on environmental issues is just wrong — and my stu-
dents using his fiction as an authority by which to reject the evi-
dence compiled by many hundreds of scientists is even worse.
Science is built on observing a phenomenon and making predic-
tions that are supported by previous knowledge. A climate expert
would know that CO2 acts as a greenhouse gas and would con-
sequently predict that global climate will change in certain ways
if CO2 levels continue to rise.

Could climate change scientists be wrong? Of course they
could. Our data remain limited, and the pattern that has emerged
might not be representative of long-term trends. Nonetheless, we
have to work with the data at hand, revealed by multiple scien-
tific papers and reports by individual scientists and national and
international bodies. The hallmark of science is to test those pre-
dictions, which have so far proven depressingly realistic, varying
only in assessments of the extent to which the damage will
accrue. The scientific community overwhelmingly agrees: Global
climate change is occurring, appears to be tied to human activi-
ties, and is likely to have devastating effects on both people and
other organisms. Because of the magnitude of the impacts and

Fisheries to place a moratorium on the taking of Alligator
Snapping Turtles.” The resolution notes that these turtles have
“historically been a vital and integral part of the Louisiana
wildlife ecosystem [and are] presently suffering excessive exploita-
tion for meat in local commercial markets, as well as an increas-
ing international market.”

The impact of such a resolution will go far in setting the sys-
tem right for Alligator Snappers in Louisiana. Other states should
consider taking similar steps to protect their turtle species.
Although resolutions are only suggestions, and the state’s wildlife
department does not have to honor them, such a suggestion by
a state senate is a positive start. The Louisiana Wildlife and
Fisheries Commission has now taken action and voted to “stop
the taking and possession of Alligator Snapping Turtles by any-
body with a commercial license.” Recreational trapping of
Alligator Snappers was not affected.

I asked Dr. Joseph Pechmann, a biologist at the University
of New Orleans, how he thought the Louisiana senate had ever

been able to pass a resolution that would protect the turtles.
“They accepted the idea that part of Louisiana’s natural heritage
was going to disappear if commercial harvest was allowed to con-
tinue. Recreational harvesting of Alligator Snappers is a pastime
important to many in the state, but the current levels of com-
mercial removal were clearly unsustainable.”

The southeastern turtle saga is not over, and I’m not sure
how it will end before meaningful regulations are in place in all
states. I do know the loss of Alligator Snappers from the com-
mercial scene will have little effect on the turtle soup au sherry at
Commander’s Palace restaurant in New Orleans. But I do not
know whether the South Carolina legislature will realize that it
must now step forward and take some action to protect its own
turtles. When I asked Dr. Pechmann how he personally felt
about the resolution to protect the giant turtles in Louisiana, he
said, “It’s about time.” Let’s hope tight restrictions on overhar-
vesting will not be too late coming for Alligator Snappers in
Louisiana, or for other turtles elsewhere.

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