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122 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2008 NEWSBRIEFS

Ray Ashton Receives Award
Ray E. Ashton, Jr., President of the Ashton
Biodiversity Research & Preservation
Institute, Inc., in Newberry, Florida, and
one of the founders of the activist group,
The Gopher Tortoise Conservation
Initiative, was awarded the 2008 Citizen’s
Award at the 14th Annual Public Interest
Environmental Conference held at the
University of Florida Law School on 28
February 2008.

The award was presented for his
outstanding contributions on behalf of
Florida environmental and land use pol-
icy. Some of the contributions that
Ashton has made include work with local
county governments in developing poli-
cies that support local conservation of
Gopher Tortoises and their habitats.
Over the past two years, he has worked
with 17 counties to establish programs
that will help protect tortoises.
Meanwhile, over the past ten years, he
has been a strong voice attempting to
change the old policies of the Florida
Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Commission from incidental take to one
of long-term management and protec-
tion through uplisting the tortoise to
threatened status in Florida and to
encourage relocation of tortoises to well-
managed and protected lands. He has
proposed reasonable financing of tortoise
management that would insure perpetual
monitoring and management for gener-
ations to come. He and members of The
Gopher Tortoise Conservation Initiative
proposed a tax exemption to landowners
that maintain natural lands. Today, farm-
ers cannot maintain their agricultural
exemptions on these lands and pay the
highest taxes on them. Thanks to the
Florida Wildlife Federation and other
stakeholders, this tax bill and many
changes have been brought forward to
create an entirely different way of con-
serving a species.

Although Ashton is not totally
pleased with the current rules being pre-
sented to the Florida Fish & Wildlife
Conservation Commission in April
2007, he supports the direction in which
they are going and hopes that the
Commission will follow-up on promises
to strengthen what is being presented in
the near future. If they do not, we will

see a continued decline of Gopher
Tortoises and the need for them to be
federally listed.

Petition to End Commercial 
Harvest of Freshwater Turtles in 

Four Southern States
Conservation and health groups are seek-
ing to end unsustainable commercial har-
vests of freshwater turtles in four south-
ern states and to stop the exportation of
contaminated turtles to international
food markets. The Center for Biological
Diversity filed emergency petitions with
the states of Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma,
and Texas to ban commercial turtle har-
vesting in public and private waters, to
prevent further population declines of
native southern turtle populations, and
to protect public health. Turtles collected
in these states and sold as food are often
contaminated with mercury, PCBs, and
pesticides.

Wildlife exporters and dealers are
commercially harvesting massive and
unsustainable numbers of wild freshwa-
ter turtles from Oklahoma, Florida, and
Georgia, the few southern states that
continue to allow unlimited and unregu-
lated take of turtles. Herpetologists have
reported drastic reductions in numbers
and even the disappearance of many
southern species of Map Turtles (genus
Graptemys) in Georgia and Florida, espe-
cially in the panhandle. Recent surveys
by Oklahoma State University show
depletions and extinction of freshwater
turtles in many Oklahoma streams, and
commercial turtle buyers in Oklahoma
reported purchasing almost 750,000
wild-caught turtles from 1994 to 1999.
Over a quarter million wild-caught adult
turtles captured in Texas were exported
from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to
Asia for human consumption from 2002
to 2005.

“Unregulated commercial trappers
are capturing appalling numbers of fresh-
water turtles in southern states, including
rare map turtle species that are so
depleted they may need protection under
the Endangered Species Act,” said Jeff
Miller, conservation advocate with the
Center for Biological Diversity.
“Collectors could legally harvest every

non-protected turtle that exists in the
wild under the inadequate regulations
that currently exist in Florida, Georgia,
and Oklahoma. These turtles are an
important part of aquatic ecosystems and
should not be allowed to be wiped out.”

Most wild turtles harvested in the
southern United States are exported to
supply food markets in Asia, primarily
China, which has depleted or driven
most of its native freshwater turtles to
extinction in the wild. Numerous south-
eastern turtles are sold to Asian seafood
markets in the United States as well.
Many of these turtles are harvested from
streams under state and federal fish advi-
sories and bans that caution against and
prohibit human consumption due to
aquatic contaminants that are carcino-
genic or harmful to humans such as
DDT, PCBs, pesticides, mercury, and
other heavy metals. Turtles live longer
and bioaccumulate considerably greater
amounts of aquatic contaminants than
fish, particularly Common Snapping
Turtles  (Chelydra serpentina) and soft-
shells (Apalone spp.) that burrow in con-
taminated sediments. “Hundreds of
thousands of wild-caught turtles are sold
locally as food or exported to interna-
tional food markets from southern states
each year, many contaminated with dan-
gerous levels of mercury, PCBs, and pes-
ticides,” said Miller. “The potential
health implications are staggering.”

Because freshwater turtles are long-
lived (some may reach 150 years of age),
breed late in life, and have low reproduc-
tive and survival rates, they are highly
sensitive to over-harvesting. Stable turtle
populations are dependent on sufficient
numbers of long-lived breeding adults to
offset natural mortality and human

N E W S B R I E F S

Drastic reductions in numbers of Map
Turtles (genus Graptemys) have been reported
in Georgia and Florida. Graptemys barbouri
is confined to the Apalachicola River system
of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. 

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IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2008 123NEWSBRIEFS

impacts. Removal of just two adult tur-
tles from a wild population could halve
that population in as few as 50 years,
since for each adult turtle removed, the
reproductive potential of that animal is
eliminated over a breeding life that may
exceed 50 years. Commercial collecting
of wild turtles intensifies the effects of
water pollution, road mortality, inciden-
tal take from fishery devices, and habitat
loss, which are already contributing to
turtle declines. Scientists warn that fresh-
water turtles cannot sustain any signifi-
cant level of harvest from the wild with-
out leading to population crashes.

Adult turtles also are harvested from
the wild to breed hatchlings in captivity
for the international pet trade. Turtle
dealers solicit huge numbers of wild tur-
tles from American sources on the inter-
net. A single dealer can employ a virtual
army of hundreds of interstate turtle col-
lectors to conduct unlimited turtle har-
vests in states where commercial harvest
is still legal.

Oklahoma, Florida, and Georgia
continue to allow unlimited commercial
take of all sizes and ages of most species
of turtles, using an unlimited quantity of
hoopnets and box traps in public and
private waters. In these states, many state
and federally protected freshwater turtles
are incidentally harvested and sold since
turtle traps do not distinguish the species
captured. Collectors often capture and
misidentify protected species that appear
similar to non-protected turtles.
Hoopnets and box traps also capture,
maim, kill, and drown protected turtle
species, non-target fish, mammals,
migratory birds, and sensitive species
such as the federally threatened American
Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).

State wildlife agencies in Tennessee,
Mississippi, North Carolina, and Alabama
have prohibited commercial take of fresh-
water turtles from the wild. Wildlife biol-
ogists from states with bans have advised
neighboring states to ban harvests, since
wildlife traffickers illegally collect turtles in
states where they are protected and claim
they were collected in states where harvest-
ing is still legal. Texas, Oklahoma, Florida,
and Georgia do not survey to determine
densities of turtle populations nor do they
require commercial collectors to report the
quantity and species of turtles harvested
from the wild.

In 2007, the Texas Parks and
Wildlife Commission voted to end com-
mercial harvests of turtles in public waters
but continued to allow unlimited harvests
of some native turtle species from streams
and lakes on private lands. An emergency
petition was submitted today to the Texas
Department of Health to ban all com-
mercial turtle harvests in Texas, due to sig-
nificant public health risk from consump-
tion of contaminated turtles.

Because of their brilliant topograph-
ical patterns and colorations, all 12 species
of map turtles from the southeastern
United States are highly sought by the
international pet trade, despite being pro-
tected under the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered
Species. Some species of map turtles fetch
more than $150 per adult on commercial
internet websites. Map turtles are drainage
specific; each watershed that drains into
the Gulf of Mexico produces a brilliant,
unique geophysical pattern and striking
coloration on the shell and skin. Many
map turtles in Texas, Alabama,
Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia warrant
federal protection under the Endangered
Species Act, and two species, the Yellow-
blotched Map Turtle (Graptemys flavimac-
ulata) and Ringed Map Turtle (G. oculif-
era), that occur in Mississippi are already
listed under the Act due to overcollection
for the pet trade.

Also signing onto the petition are
the St. John’s Riverkeeper (Florida),
Satilla Riverkeeper (Georgia), Altamaha
Riverkeeper (Georgia), Oklahoma
Chapter of the Sierra Club, Lone Star
Chapter of the Sierra Club (Texas),
Pineywoods Group of the Sierra Club
(Texas), and the Center for Food Safety.
The petitions and background informa-
tion on the commercial harvest of fresh-
water turtles can be found on the Center
for Biological Diversity Web site at:

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/
campaigns/southern_freshwater_turtles/
index.html

The Center for Biological Diversity is a
nonprofit conservation organization with
more than 40,000 members dedicated to
the protection of endangered species and
wild places.

Jeff Miller
Center for Biological Diversity

Rudy Komarek, 
Rattlesnake Poacher

In early March 2008, Rudy Komarek
(aka “Cobra King”), a notorious Timber
Rattlesnake poacher and sometime show-
man, suffered a fatal heart attack at the
age of 79. Apart from several well-known
bounty hunters who took thousands of
Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus)
at taxpayers’ expense in three northeast-
ern New York counties and one western
Vermont county (see Jon Furman’s
Timber Rattlesnakes in Vermont and New
York, University of New England Press,
2007), no single individual had a detri-
mental impact on northeastern popula-
tions of this species as great as that of
Komarek.

During the second half of the 20th
century, Komarek’s extensive commercial
collecting of reptiles in New York,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, and West Virginia flour-
ished in a career that spanned four
decades. In 1994, Brown, Jones, and
Stechert (Bulletin of the Chicago
Herpetological Society 29:74–79) detailed
Komarek’s federal felony conviction for
interstate trafficking, describing him as a
“nefarious hominid” who single-hand-
edly caused severe depletion or extirpa-
tion of many populations of Timber
Rattlesnakes in the Northeast.

Using Stechert’s long-term monitor-
ing data of many of the same rattlesnake
dens that Komarek is known to have
exploited, Brown et al. (1994) estimated
that Komarek accounted for over 2,900
Timber Rattlesnakes taken from 27 dens
in eight counties in New York. We now
believe that this estimate is overly conser-
vative. Since our report was published,
Stechert has continued to conduct
detailed status surveys in New York, the
results of which — in conjunction with
the poacher’s own admissions in recent

Rudy Komarek single-handedly caused severe
depletion or extirpation of many populations
of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in
the northeastern United States. 

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124 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2008 NEWSBRIEFS

years — now allow us to provide an
improved estimate of Komarek’s take.
Our revised estimate suggests that, over a
lifetime of collecting, Komarek took or
killed approximately 4,000–6,000 (best
median estimate 5,000) Timber
Rattlesnakes in New York, as well as hun-
dreds in adjoining states.

Over the past 25 years, the Timber
Rattlesnake has been legally protected as
a threatened species in New York. Before
Komarek fled the state (settling for sev-
eral years in Pennsylvania and finally
retreating to semi-retirement in Florida),
he is believed to have had about a four-
teen-year period of taking the species fol-
lowing its listing and protection in New
York. Although an era of outright deple-
tion of Timber Rattlesnakes may have
slowed considerably due to Komarek’s
demise, we must take note of a variety of
new and continuing threats to this
snake’s habitats and populations caused
by greatly expanded urban sprawl in the
form of housing and commercial devel-
opments.

Randy Stechert
Narrowsburg, New York 12764

and

William S. Brown
Department of Biology

Skidmore College
Saratoga Springs, New York

Last Chance for the Yangtze 
Giant Softshell Turtle?

With only four individuals of Rafetus
swinhoei known to exist worldwide (two
in China and two in Vietnam), and only
one of these a female, the stakes could
not be much higher. A historic effort is
now underway in China to move the
lone female, currently at the Changsha
Zoo, to the Suzhou Zoo for breeding
with their captive male.

A collaborative effort between the
Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) and
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS),
the team responsible for the move arrived
in China on 1 May. Led by Dr. Gerald
Kuchling (University of Western
Australia), the world’s leading chelonian
reproductive physiologist, the team con-
sists of Paul Calle, DVM (Bronx Zoo),
Scott Davis (manager of the largest collec-
tion of Giant Softshell Turtles outside of

Asia), Nimal Fernando (Ocean Park
Hong Kong veterinarian), Alex Grioni
(Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden vet-
erinarian), and Mitch Kalmanson, who
was contracted by the TSA to insure the
female during transport and to handle
transportation logistics. A PBS Nature
film crew will be on hand to document
this incredible event for an upcoming spe-
cial on efforts to breed critically endan-
gered species in captivity. Chinese media
attention promises to be intense as well.

The plan is for Dr. Kuchling and Lu
Shunquing (WCS China) to inspect the
recently modified breeding facilities at
Suzhou Zoo; then, if approved, the
female will undergo an ultrasound exam
to determine her reproductive status. A
2007 exam indicated that she would
likely ovulate in mid-May, so the plan is
to have her with the male before then.
The female will tentatively be driven to
Suzhou, a 620-mile trip, on 5 May. The
breeding pond at Suzhou Zoo has been
subdivided to allow the pair to see and
smell each other and gauge their reaction
before the introduction occurs. If mating
is successful, the male will be removed
and the female left alone to nest.

“I hate to call this a desperation
move, but it really is,” Rick Hudson, Co-
Chair of the TSA said. “The risks are cer-
tainly there, but doing nothing is much
riskier.” The TSA is growing accustomed
to high-pressure situations — such is the
case when working with critically endan-
gered species — but nothing of this mag-
nitude. The planning that has been

involved to get us to this point has been
intensive and has produced a remarkable
partnership based on the strengths of
both the TSA global network and WCS
China. This move has required major
financial support (at least $25,000 and
the total could increase) and the follow-
ing organizations are recognized for their
contributions: Turtle Conservation
Fund, Batchelor Foundation, Kadoorie
Farm and Botanic Garden, Ocean Park
Conservation Foundation, and Walter
Sedgwick.

Should this move go through as
planned look for a media storm to follow.
And keep your fingers crossed that this
goes well. We may not get a second
chance.

Turtle Survival Alliance
5 May 2008.—History is being made
today — and TSA is leading the way.
The last known female Yangtze Giant
Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is on
her way to join the last captive male at
the Suzhou Zoo in China. The team
transporting the turtle left Changsha this
morning about 2 AM CST, a 3-van car-
avan (including a PBS Nature film crew)
starting an 1,100-km trip. Dr. Gerald
Kuchling has inspected the modified
breeding pond at Suzhou and recom-
mended some last-minute changes before
returning to Changsha, where he per-
formed a reproductive ultrasound exam
on the female. The good news is that she
has not yet ovulated and has 11 pre-ovu-

With only four known individuals, the Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) is likely
the most endangered species on earth.

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latory follicles and good fat deposits. The
move appears to be right on time.

6 May 2008.—A call last night from
“Team Rafetus” announced that, amid
great fanfare, they had just put the female
in the breeding pond at Suzhou Zoo. She
headed down the ramp into the pool,
and surfaced a few seconds later and
began looking around. The pond is
divided with fencing into three sections.
Today, the male will be allowed into that
adjacent to the female to allow and assess
interaction. Phase 1 of this historic oper-
ation is complete, and the team is upbeat
about the chances of a successful intro-
duction.

Fort Worth Zoo Announces 
Significant Hatchings

A Forsten’s Tortoise (Indotestudo forsteni)
hatched on 2 April 2008, and four eggs
from other clutches are still incubating.
The Zoo’s group of 4.2 was assembled in
late 2005 for inclusion in the conserva-
tion-based collection at the Animal
Outreach and Conservation Center
(ARCC) that opened in March 2006.

The Zoo also reported the hatching
of 13 Roti Island Snakeneck Turtles

(Chelodina mccordi) with another 30 eggs
still incubating. This species also is
included in the ARCC collection.

Turtle Survival Alliance

Death-Dealing Frogs
Are Bullfrogs a four-legged version of
Typhoid Mary, spreading a lethal plague
among their fellows but remaining unaf-
fected themselves? That’s one of the
newer hypotheses for a global die-off of
frogs and other amphibians, which may
already have led to the extinction of more
than 100 species since the 1980s. Other
hypotheses include increased ultraviolet-
B radiation, pesticides, habitat loss, and
a mystery parasite.

“It’s never going to be one single
cause,” cautions Purnima Govindarajulu,
a biologist who has been tracking the
exploding Bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana)
population on Vancouver Island for the
past decade. A fungus known as Bd may
be a major reason that Bullfrogs are sup-
planting common island denizens such
as the Western Toad (Bufo boreas) and the
Red-legged Frog (Rana aurora). Bd is
short for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis,
a fresh-water mold identified in 1998 as
responsible for a disease that’s deadly to
many amphibians, but not to Bullfrogs,
which all carry Bd. Govindarajulu began
investigating the island’s Bullfrog explo-
sion in 1997 for her Ph.D. at the
University of Victoria, supervised by evo-
lutionary ecologist Brad Anholt. Now a
herpetofaunal specialist with the B.C.
environmental ministry, she is coordinat-
ing amphibian collections across the
province, but keeping an eye on Bd and
Bullfrogs as an adjunct professor at UVic.

“We’ve found Bd in places here
where there are no Bullfrogs. For
instance, Rough-skinned Newts (Taricha
granulosa) also carry it, and they are
native to Vancouver Island,” she says.
The province is now appealing to all
biologists to report dead frogs to get a
better handle on the extent of the prob-
lem. Meanwhile Anholt’s lab is preparing
molecular family histories of both
Bullfrogs and the Bd fungus. “If the two
family histories are congruent then there’s
a good chance that Bullfrogs are the car-
riers,” says Anholt.

Peter Calamai
Toronto Star

2008 Gopher Tortoise 
Council Meeting

The annual meeting of the Gopher
Tortoise Council will be held at the
Oceanside Inn and Suites, Jekyll Island,
Georgia on 3–4 October 2008. The
meeting will feature a special session on
Friday of presentations on Wildlife and
Ecosystem Health, with confirmed pre-
sentations by Elliot Jacobson, Sonya
Hernandez Divers, Charles Innis, Steven
H. Divers, Terry Norton, John Maerz,
Scott Connelly, Nancy Stedman, Lori
Wendland, Matt Aresco, Kimberly
Andrews, and Greg Lewbart. On
Saturday, the scientific program contin-
ues with contributed presentations and
posters on any topic relating to the
Gopher Tortoise and the Longleaf Pine
ecosystem. A tour of the Georgia Sea
Turtle Center will be offered Friday
evening. For more information and reg-
istration information, please visit the
Gopher Tortoise Council’s website at
www.gophertortoisecouncil.org/events.
php.

Hatchling Forsten's Tortoise (Indotestudo
forsteni), the other rare turtle bred at the
Forth Worth Zoo.

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Introduced Bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) have
displaced native amphibians from large areas
of southeastern Vancouver Island in Canada
— and may be carriers of a deadly fungus. 

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The scientific program of the Gopher
Tortoise Council will focus on the Gopher
Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) and the
Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) ecosystem. 

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Hatchling Roti Island Snakeneck Turtle
(Chelodina mccordi), one of two rare turtles
successfully bred at the Fort Worth Zoo.

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