Zoos with the rarest / most endangered freshwater turtles

I think the turtle meat soup in cans that you mention would have been from marine turtles because that was quite a widespread habit back in the late 19th and early 20th century I guess.

Its interesting what you mention about turtles in christian tradition being eaten during fasting periods as I think I read something related to that but about the European beaver too.

 

Yes, beavers were also allowed during fasting period. Christian classification of food seems arbitrary.

So I looked at some mentions of Pond turtles in various sources. Famous Czech cookbook of Mrs. Rettigová was first printed in 1826 and contains 1150 recipes, mentioning very many types of meat (including singing birds, snails, frogs, mussels). It has exactly ZERO recipes for turtles.

In year 1603, a landlord Vok in Treboň, magnate in fish farming, transported pond turtles from south Morava and started a turtle breeding farm that lasted till middle of 18th century. Some other Czech nobility in 17th and beginning of 18th century kept and bred turtles in ponds near their residencies. I found mention of a turtle breeding pond located in Prague "already in Middle age" but without datation.

I don´t have exact sources for time before 1500, but some authors mention large-scale importation of pond turtles from Southern Europe at that time. Main customers were monasteries. And if such trade was financially profitable, turtles had to fetch high prices and be exclusive market item. It means pond turtles were already largery extirpated in my country before year 1500, with exception of South Morava where they probably survived longer.

 

This is really interesting @Jana ! Thanks for sharing !

So from what you've researched it would appear that it was monasteries and the aristocracy who may have been the parties who were overexploiting the species historically in Central Europe for consumption ?

I think that it is exactly as you say that if pond turtles were being imported from Southern Europe to feed the demand then surely that would point to populations of the species having already been in either steep decline or locally extinct even before the year 1500.

I wonder if this phenomenon of overexploitation also occurred in other areas of Europe where the pond turtle was / is present.

 

In Poland, turtles were still sold in 19. century. In Polesie, even in the living memory (early 20. century) turtles were easier to find than stones.

 

Were they commonly eaten by all classes of people in Polish society during this time ?

 

Regarding information / educational signage of freshwater turtles at zoos I found a couple of examples in the gallery that I like that I'll post here :

This is an example of a sign at San Diego zoo and I think it is really great in terms of being succint but also hitting home with the conservation message about the species (in this case the Roti island snake necked turtle).

This example is from Taronga zoo and though also succint focuses primarily on the conservation message and the ex-situ / in-situ work of the zoo with the species (Bellinger river turtle).

Another sign but this time from Krefeld zoo, as I don't understand German I can't make out everything mentioned here but the illustrations and basic information on the ecology of the species in the wild look very good.

This example from Schildpademcentrum looks to be a great enclosure and unusually is focused only on turtles but the information signage is a little awkward in terms of position and visitor engagement.

This sign from Rotterdam zoo is quite basic but seems to do the job although is probably a bit too complex in terms of information content for the average zoo visitor to read.
This is an interesting one from an Australian zoo that specifically mentions the cultural significance of this turtle species (Northern snapping turtle) for indigenous / aboriginal culture.

Another good sign here in terms of explaining the conservation of a freshwater turtle species, this time from the brilliant Mexican zoomat.


Great signage here at this sealife aquarium but unfortunately (in the context of this thread) not really related to endangered freshwater turtles but rather invasive terrapins.

Interesting sign here from Barcelona zoo that profiles the turtles as well as the main attraction of this mixed species exhibit which is the Chinese alligator. Unfortunately it also shows the lack of interest by the zoo in educating visitors about the turtles though as it includes minimal information on them in sharp contrast to the alligator.


Photo credit to @betsy, @vogelcommando, @zooboy28, @carlos55, @Maguari and @WhistlingKite24.

 

A controversial exhibit for the Annam leaf turtle at ZSL's reptile house that is very explicit about what is driving the decline of this species in the wild.

Is it effective in conservation awareness raising or too shocking to be educational?

Let me know your thoughts below.




Photo credit to @zoogiraffe.

 

That's a little strange... That's supposed to be turtle meat in the back, right?

 

Yes, I believe that it is the shell of a turtle that was confiscated on a raid on wildlife traffickers.

There was an article about this particular exhibit in Mongabay a couple of years ago that you may find interesting to read.

Link is posted below.

Photos: new zoo exhibit dramatically displays real threat to Asian turtle

 

Thanks for the article. I don't have a problem with this type of display, because of the educational message, but I think the shell is slightly too much. I don't know if I'm being too sensitive about it, but it seems a bit gruesome to have a turtle shell in the same space that the turtles are living in. I don't think that the turtles care very much, but I think it would be more appropriate in an educational display on the side somewhere.

 

Thats a really interesting point and I agree that for many visitors the shell and the chopping block with the knife would indeed be far too much.

For me personally this is the kind of display that I like (was impressed when I saw it in London) in the sense that it is designed to pack a short sharp visual punch at the visitor and to jab at their ability to empathise with a species that is not a large fluffy mammal.

 

There needs to be a zoo cafe selling Indian food that you can eat while watching Chelodina mccordi swim around. Name it “Roti Island.”

 

I'd go for it , I'd love to drink a cobra beer and have a curry while watching turtles.

 

I definitely agree that they did a good job with the impact of the message on visitors, but I think the the shell may be better off on the side somewhere, not in the turtle's living space. Just my opinion.

 

Absolutely agree.

No, its ok, you are entitled to your opinion .

In fact I want to hear it as that is what I intended this discussion to be so feel free to share what you think

 

The pictograms are food (plants, insects), habitat (semi-aquatic) and endangerment status.

Then the following keywords: Origin, Size (without tail), weight, age, breeding duration (unknown), predators, time of activity (diurnal) and social structure (solitary).

At last the small text:
These large freshwaterturtles belong to the group of side-necked turtles. The females are larger then the males. Nests of 100 white eggs are laid during the dry season on sandbanks. The oil from the eggs is used by humans (smear-/lamp-oil, for cooking).

 

Thanks for that @Jarne !

Much appreciated !

What do you think about this sign ? Is it effective or could it be improved in terms of educational content ?

 

I think it's a very good sign to signal a species, though it borders on being too informative. It's impossible to give a huge amount of information about every species, visitors simply don't read it. As long as certain focal species have signs going more in dept I believe this is a more then decent sign.

 

I think the best sign of all of those I posted above was probably the one at San Diego zoo due to the reasons you've described in terms of avoiding information overload.

 

Not really arbitrary, but rather the result of cunning and gluttony. The bishops, abbots and other high-ranking clergy members in Medieval Europe loved their meat, but had to abstain from it on Fridays and times of abstinence to set an example. However, they tried to circumvent that by declaring everything only slightly aquatic a fish. Or baked meat pies in the form of a fish to "fool God". Some even drowned pigs and pigs or fished pigs out of fountains to declare them as "fish". One German abbot allegedly baptised the roast pork in front of him with the words "Ego te baptizo carpam" I hereby christen you carp.