Rendering a once common turtle species endangered in China

In the 20th Century, Reeves’ turtle Mauremys reevesii was the most widely distributed and had the largest population of hard-shell turtles in China (Sowerby, 1925; Liu Bhupathy et al. 2000). Due to the high price of individual wild turtles (Sung & Fong, 2018), illegal hunting persists, even in nature reserves (Gong et al. 2017) where it has become a major threat to wild populations (Wang, Parham & Shi, 2021). Although Reeves’ turtle was recently listed as a second-class special state protection wildlife in China, this listing is restricted to ‘wild population only’ (NFGA & MARA, 2021). As a result, this has created a major obstacle to the effective conservation of this species. Whether by government law enforcement bodies or professional researchers, it remains difficult to distinguish between wild and farm-bred individuals. Worse still, turtle farms can be used as a cover for the illegal wild turtle trade (Shi et al. 2007). Therefore, all chelonian species would urgently need strict protection. In addition to Reeves’ turtle, 57% (16/28) of other turtle species in China have been listed as protected in ‘wild population only’ (NFGA & MARA, 2021). If we exclude sea turtles and tortoises, the proportion of protected freshwater turtles in China is 80% (16/20). These turtle species all face the same threat as Reeves’ turtle in China. Therefore, there is an urgent need to strictly protect the species that cannot be successfully bred in captivity, such as the big-headed turtle Platysternon megacephalum. For those species that can be bred to maturity in farms, management of breeding programs should be strengthened, where breeding certificates must be tightly regulated. Only thereby will it be possible to effectively stop farmed turtles from being used as a cover for the illegal wild turtle trade. Therefore, stopping poaching as well as increasing captive breeding can effectively halt the further destruction of wild populations. With 33 species, China has the third-richest turtle diversity in the world, and it is also one of the countries with the highest proportion of endangered species in this taxon (Rhodin et al. 2018). Seventy-six percent of turtle species are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered by IUCN, and 88% (29/33) are given Chinese second-class protection status, where they face the threat of extinction and wild populations need immediate and urgent conservation (Wang et al. 2021). Take for example, the Swinhoe’s softshell turtle Rafetus swinhoei, which was widely distributed in large numbers, has only one surviving wild caught individual in a zoo in China. The evidence suggests that even the most common species can rapidly become endangered or near-extinct, and we fear this may be the tip of the iceberg where the entire group of Chinese turtle species may be on the brink of extinction. This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32170532).