Tiny Bundles of Hope: Critically endangered turtles hatch in Myanmar

Small wonders emerge from the mud around Myanmar’s largest lake: Burmese peacock softshell turtles, just hatched from their eggs. For what may be the first time, humans were there to witness the birth of these rare creatures.

The hatchlings – tiny pancakes on surprisingly fast legs – emerged from a hole in the ground this month and began crawling for a new life in Lake Indawgyi. Their first steps were captured on video by U Nyein Chan and U Yae Aung, local staff from the International Wildlife Organization Fauna & Flora.

The turtles were intercepted by Mr. Nyein Chan, a senior project officer; Mr. Yae Aung, a project assistant; and other colleagues who weighed, measured and released them.

The discovery is “extremely exciting,” said Fredric Janzen, a biology professor at Michigan State University who specializes in softshell turtles but is not involved in this project.

The turtles, also called Nilssonia formosa, are critically endangered and found only in Myanmar. Their common name comes from black and orange spots on their shells, reminiscent of peacock feathers. Scientists know little about the animals.

“No one has done the proper studies,” said U Zau Lunn, a program manager at Fauna & Flora in Myanmar. His team started conservation work on the Burmese peacock turtle last year. Mr Zau Lunn said he and his staff were “very happy” to have found eggs and hatchlings so quickly.

He owes this early success to working closely with residents of the villages surrounding Lake Indawgyi, a globally important ecosystem that also provides habitat for endangered migratory birds. The lake and surrounding wetlands were designated as one UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 2017. Recently, Fauna & Flora has given money to people living on the lake shore to form a team of “turtle protectors” and patrol the area to protect breeding grounds.

Last October, community members and conservationists identified and sealed five turtle nests with about 20 eggs each, but didn’t know the species of the eggs’ occupants until the babies began hatching in June. Now that they have been identified as Burmese peacock turtles, more research can begin. That the eggs have been incubating for nine months is already an unusual finding, Mr Zau Lunn said. The eggs of other turtle species, even in the genus Nilssonia, hatch after just two or three months.

“If you’re doing conservation work, you need to know something about the basic life history of the organism,” said Steven Platt, a herpetologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society who is one of a handful of scientists to have done research on the Burmese peacock turtle. .

Just finding and describing nesting sites is valuable for science and conservation, said Dr. Platt, who is not involved in this project. “Those are all pieces of the puzzle that we are slowly putting together. Unfortunately, we don’t have much time, because these species are declining so quickly.”

Lake Indawgyi turtle conservationists protected these eggs, but threats to the species remain, including habitat loss, pollution, climate change, accidental capture by fishermen, and subsistence hunting or the international wildlife trade. About 40 percent of all turtle and tortoise species is endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. The total number of Burmese peacock turtles is unknown, but scientists suspect their population has declined by at least 80 percent over the past 90 years.

While adult turtles are usually invulnerable to predators, very few turtles survive from egg and hatchlings to adulthood, said Dr. Flat. That makes these Burmese peacock turtle babies all the more precious.

Dr. Janzen, of Michigan State University, applauded the turtle guardians. “This is the fruit of their labor,” he said. Local cooperation is what makes conservation efforts succeed and last, said Dr. Janzen. “If people have an interest in it, a joy, a passion, then it becomes sustainable.”