No abstract

Turtles and tortoises (chelonians) have been integral components of global ecosystems for about 220 million years and have played important roles in human culture for at least 400,000 years. The chelonian shell is a remarkable evolutionary adaptation, facilitating success in terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems. Today, more than half of the 360 living species and 482 total taxa (species and subspecies combined) are threatened with extinction. This places chelonians among the groups with the highest extinction risk of any sizeable vertebrate group. Turtle populations are declining rapidly due to habitat loss, consumption by humans for food and traditional medicines and collection for the international pet trade. Many taxa could become extinct in this century. Here, we examine survival threats to turtles and tortoises and discuss the interventions that will be needed to prevent widespread extinction in this group in coming decades.

Over the past 16 years, 13 new species of geoemydid turtles have been described from China. Ten of these new species are based on specimens purchased through the Hong Kong animal trade. Unfortunately, attempts by scientists to discover wild populations of some these newly described species have failed, raising questions about the legitimacy of the type localities and concerns over the validity of the species. Here the phylogenetic and taxonomic validity of two of these species is tested. Mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and allozyme genotypes of specimens matching the descriptions of Mauremys iversoni and Cuora serrata are compared to specimens of established species collected from known localities. The available evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the specimens represent polyphyletic, intergeneric hybrids. The systematic status of all the new forms of turtles described from pet trade specimens are critical data for conservation efforts, particularly captive breeding.

Due to the male's elaborate songs, the Hwamei Garrulax canorus is the most popular caged bird in the global Chinese community. Three allopatric Hwamei subspecies have been described: G. c. canorus in central and southern China and northern Indochina, G. c. owstoni from Hainan and G. c. taewanus from Taiwan. We sequenced the entire mitochondrial cytochrome b gene to reconstruct the molecular intraspecific phylogeny of the Hwamei. Molecular phylogenetic trees indicated that individuals of the three subspecies formed three monophyletic clades with high bootstrap support (> 95%). The basal clade was G. c. taewanus. According to a conventional molecular clock (2% divergence per million years), G. c. taewanus split from the other Hwamei taxa around 1.5 million years ago, and G. c. owstoni diverged from G. c. canorus around 0.6 million years ago. Considering the periodic connection between the Asian mainland and nearby continental islands during the glacial periods, habitat vicariance may have played a more important role than geographical vicariance in facilitating the differentiation of these taxa. Molecular diagnosability, population integrity, and concordance between the population ranges and the topology of the phylogenetic tree suggested that the Hwamei should be delimited into at least two full species: G. canorus and G. taewanus. Our work represents one of the first attempts to re‐evaluate the intraspecific systematics for an eastern Asian bird species using molecular data.

China is the largest consumer of turtles in the world and international trade has been cited as the greatest threat to Asian turtles. Two main types of trade in live turtles occur in China: for food and traditional Chinese medicine, and for pets, including those for release by Buddhists. The food trade involves the largest quantities of turtles. In recent years, however, the international pet turtle trade has increased dramatically. Yuehe Pet Market in Guangzhou is the largest pet market in China. selling live chelonians and other animals. To understand the potential impacts of the pet trade on chelonians we conducted seven surveys in Yuehe Pet Market from August 2006 to March 2008. Over 39,000 individual chelonians of 61 species were recorded (19.1% of the global total of 319 species). Fifteen (24.6%) of these species are native to China and 46 (75.4%) are native to other countries. Two are designated as grade II key state-protected species in China. Thirty-eight (62.3%) are CITES listed species (four in CITES Appendix I, 26 in CITES II and eight in CITES III). Four are categorized on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, 16 as Endangered and 19 as Vulnerable. Our surveys indicate that increasing demand and the illegal international pet trade could be having a severe impact on chelonian conservation, and we make recommendations for law enforcement and conservation.