Terrapene carolina (Linnaeus 1758) – Eastern Box Turtle, Common Box Turtle.

In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Iverson, J.B., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs 5(8):085.1–25, doi:10.3854/crm.5.085.carolina.v1.2015, http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/cbftt/.

Summary:

The Eastern Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina (Family Emydidae), as currently understood, contains six living subspecies of small turtles (carapace lengths to ca. 115–235 mm) able to close their hinged plastrons into a tightly closed box. Although the nominate subspecies is among the most widely distributed and well-known of the world’s turtles, the two Mexican subspecies are poorly known. This primarily terrestrial, though occasionally semi-terrestrial, species ranges throughout the eastern and southern United States and disjunctly in Mexico. It was generally recognized as common in the USA throughout the 20th century, but is now threatened by continuing habitat conversion, road mortality, and collection for the pet trade, and notable population declines have been documented throughout its range. In the United States, this turtle is a paradigm example of the conservation threats that beset and impact a historically common North American species. In Mexico, the greatest need for the subspecies that occur there is to further assess their distribution, habitat requirements, economic status, and conservation threats.

17.08.2016

Graptemys flavimaculata Cagle 1954 – Yellow-Blotched Sawback, Yellow-Blotched Map Turtle.

In: Rhodin, A.G.J., Pritchard, P.C.H., van Dijk, P.P., Saumure, R.A., Buhlmann, K.A., Iverson, J.B., and Mittermeier, R.A. (Eds.). Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises: A Compilation Project of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group. Chelonian Research Monographs No. 5, pp. 052.1–052.11, doi:10.3854/crm.5.052.flavimaculata.v1.2011, http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/cbftt/.

Summary:

The Yellow-blotched Sawback, Graptemys flavimaculata (Family Emydidae), is a small to medium-sized riverine species endemic to the Pascagoula River drainage of southeast Mississippi, USA. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced, with adult females attaining more than twice the length and ten times the mass of adult males. Although the species is locally abundant, populations are threatened by habitat destruction, collection for the pet trade, invasive species, water quality degradataion, and other human impacts. Previously listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List, the species has recently been downlisted to Vulnerable due to improved population estimates, newly discovered localities, and improved water qualities leading to some recovered populations. It remains Threatened because of its small range, large number of potential threats, and moderately severe declines in the largest population.

Determining Connections between the Daily Lives of Zoo Elephants and Their Welfare: An Epidemiological Approach.

PLoS ONE 11(7): e0158124. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0158124

Abstract

Concerns about animal welfare increasingly shape people’s views about the acceptability of keeping animals for food production, biomedical research, and in zoos. The field of animal welfare science has developed over the past 50 years as a method of investigating these concerns via research that assesses how living in human-controlled environments influences the behavior, health and affective states of animals. Initially, animal welfare research focused on animals in agricultural settings, but the field has expanded to zoos because good animal welfare is essential to zoos’ mission of promoting connections between animals and visitors and raising awareness of conservation issues. A particular challenge for zoos is ensuring good animal welfare for long-lived, highly social species like elephants. Our main goal in conducting an epidemiological study of African (Loxodonta africana) and Asian (Elephas maximus) elephant welfare in 68 accredited North American zoos was to understand the prevalence of welfare indicators in the population and determine the aspects of an elephant’s zoo environment, social life and management that are most important to prevent and reduce a variety of welfare problems. In this overview, we provide a summary of the findings of the nine papers in the collection titled: Epidemiological Investigations of North American Zoo Elephant Welfare with a focus on the life history, social, housing, and management factors found to be associated with particular aspects of elephant welfare, including the performance of abnormal behavior, foot and joint problems, recumbence, walking rates, and reproductive health issues. Social and management factors were found to be important for multiple indicators of welfare, while exhibit space was found to be less influential than expected. This body of work results from the largest prospective zoo-based animal welfare study conducted to date and sets in motion the process of using science-based welfare benchmarks to optimize care of zoo elephants.

Link zum Volltext: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0158124

meehan-biblio

Faszinierendes Amerika - Alle Nationalparks der USA.

241 Seiten, mit sehr vielen farbigen Abbildungen.

Bayerische Verlagsanstalt, Bamberg. ISBN-10: 3811209752; ISBN-13: 978-3811209756.