HOUSE OF THE WEEK
Unfinished project in South Okkalapa tsp
THIS two-storey house in South Okkalapa township represents unfinished business. more
Roofed turtle still under threat: WCS
(Volume 26, No. 512)
A PROJECT to save the endangered Myanmar roofed turtle (Kachuga trivittata) in the wild is facing difficulties because of gold mining in the turtle’s Sagaing Division breeding grounds, a Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) official said last week.
Under the program, one-month old roofed turtles are collected from breeding grounds along the Chindwin River and reared at Yadanarbon Zoo in Mandalay.
Some are then returned to the wild, while others are kept at the zoo, which now has 267 Myanmar roofed turtles.
However, the number of eggs and hatched turtles has declined in recent years, mostly as a result of gold mining and panning along the river.
The number of eggs uncovered by officials in 2009 was 40 percent down on 2006, when 258 eggs were found, said WCS Myanmar coordinator U Win Ko Ko.
In Sagaing Division, the gravid (egg carrying) female turtles lay their eggs in sandbanks between Homalin township and Hkamti township.
“One sandbank in Sagaing Division was particularly popular with local roofed turtles but they rarely go there now because the gold miners are very close, they can hear them working,” U Win Ko Ko said. “When the miners look for gold, they pump water up to the bank and deliberately erode it to reveal the gold. The sandbanks are then too small to support the turtles anymore.”
WCS Myanmar has been implementing the program in cooperation with the Department of Forestry and conservation group Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) since 2005.
The eggs are laid in January and February and hatch in May. A turtle’s clutch has two to 11 nests, about one metre apart, and each nest has three to 10 eggs.
As well as gold mining, fishing nets and fishing with electric shocks have also affected the Myanmar roofed turtle population. The turtle is also sometimes eaten by locals, U Win Ko Ko said.
The herbivorous Burmese roofed turtle is one of seven turtle species endemic to Myanmar and was once found in the Ayeyarwady, Chindwin, Than Lwin, Shweli and Dokhtawady rivers, according to a survey in the 1930s by the British government.
Today, the Myanmar roofed turtle is found only in the Chindwin River and the Dokhtawady River in Mandalay Division and is considered an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It is also protected by a local fisheries law (1993) and wildlife law (1994).
“[Burmese roofed turtles] are part of our country’s natural heritage. We must appreciate and keep them,” U Win Ko Ko said.
According to the WCS, Myanmar is home to 32 species of turtle and tortoise.
