Wildlife ranks the fourth among illegally traded items. The insatiable market demand for wildlife products directly threatens plants, animals and their natural habitats. Identifying illegal trade and ...understanding consumer trends is important for the conservation of overexploited species. The internet and social media have emerged as popular platforms for wildlife trade, and surveying these marketplaces is an important tool for conservation. Due to their high demand and high value, we choose turtles as a case study to demonstrate the usefulness of monitoring the online trade. We collected data (species, number and price) on the sale of live turtles from a Hong Kong-based internet forum for 36 months (September 2013–August 2016) to assess the scale of the trade, identify potential illegal trade and investigate factors that influence prices. We recorded 14,360 individuals of 136 species, including 67 threatened species. Of the 77 species sold that are listed in CITES appendices, 36% were likely illegally traded as they had neither possession licenses under Hong Kong law nor CITES import records. Turtles with the highest prices tended to be critically endangered species, wild-caught or those with special morphological forms. Sale of hybrid turtles of 38 “species/varieties” occurred in 4% of all sale posts. Our survey of the online trade in Hong Kong discovered important trends of sale price and consumer preference, collected baseline data for enforcing trade regulations and highlighted likely illegal trade of turtles. We encourage similar studies for other highly traded wildlife to be incorporated into integrative approaches for conservation management.
Deforestation is a major threat to biodiversity worldwide, especially in Southeast Asia. In western Thailand, reptiles are an important part of tropical rainforest ecosystems and karst forests. ...However, basic ecological studies of many species are largely lacking. Therefore, we studied two sympatric gecko species, Cyrtodactylus saiyok and C. tigroides, that inhabit karst forests and are restricted to western Thailand. We investigated the habitat variables that affect their abundance and body condition in Kanchanaburi Province in western Thailand. We found that the abundance of C. saiyok increased with increasing plant density and decreasing canopy cover. For both study species, body condition was positively correlated with canopy cover. The two species differed in their microhabitat use, and C. tigroides prefers more karst outcrops and stays higher above the ground. Our findings highlight the importance of an intact forest structure for the survival of geckos and thus reiterates that it is crucial to conserve karst forests in Southeast Asia.
Studies have elucidated the importance of gut microbiota for an organism, but we are still learning about the important influencing factors. Several factors have been identified in helping shape the ...microbiome of a host, and in this study we focus on two factors-geography and host. We characterize the fecal microbiota of the Big-headed Turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) and compare across a relatively fine geographic scale (three populations within an 8-km radius) and between two syntopic hosts (P. megacephalum and Sacalia bealei). Both species are endangered, which limits the number of samples we include in the study. Despite this limitation, these data serve as baseline data for healthy, wild fecal microbiotas of two endangered turtle species to aid in conservation management.
For geography, the beta diversity of fecal microbiota differed between the most distant sites. The genus Citrobacter significantly differs between sites, which may indicate a difference in food availability, environmental microbiota, or both. Also, we identify the common core microbiome for Platysternon across Hong Kong as the shared taxa across the three sites. Additionally, beta diversity differs between host species. Since the two species are from the same site and encounter the same environmental microbiota, we infer that there is a host effect on the fecal microbiota, such as diet or the recruitment of host-adapted bacteria. Lastly, functional analyses found metabolism pathways (KEGG level 1) to be the most common, and pathways (KEGG level 3) to be statistically significant between sites, but statistically indistinguishable between species at the same site.
We find that fecal microbiota can significantly differ at a fine geographic scale and between syntopic hosts. Also, the function of fecal microbiota seems to be strongly affected by geographic site, rather than species. This study characterizes the identity and function of the fecal microbiota of two endangered turtle species, from what is likely their last remaining wild populations. These data of healthy, wild fecal microbiota will serve as a baseline for comparison and contribute to the conservation of these two endangered species.
We evaluate the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques to locate wild populations and estimate the population size of the endangered big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) in Hong ...Kong. The results from this study are important for identifying priority sites for protection and further research. Additionally, we assess the impact of two environmental variables (temperature and pH) on eDNA quantity. We surveyed 34 streams for three years, sampling four times each year. Four new populations were first identified with eDNA analysis, and then verified by field surveys. Our multi-year survey highlights that eDNA detection can be inconsistent over time, even in streams with known populations. There was no significant relationship between eDNA quantity and the environmental variables tested. Lastly, our results suggest that eDNA methods remain promising to estimate population size, since number of positive detections were positively correlated with population size in streams with known populations. We conclude that eDNA methods are powerful, but care must be taken when interpreting field results as they are affected by species ecology and environmental conditions.
Extensive loss of natural wetlands caused by changes in land use largely diminishes the food resources essential for the survival of migratory waterbirds. Globally, the decline in waterbird ...populations in East Asia is the most serious, with 64% of these populations showing a decreasing trend. In this study, we applied DNA metabarcoding to examine the spatiotemporal variations and diversities in the dietary compositions of migratory waterbirds in a natural/artificial wetland complex in Asia. By investigating 110 fecal samples from the endangered black-faced spoonbill (Platalea minor) wintering in the wetland, our results show that P. minor had a broad dietary spectrum. The birds fed on at least 26 species in the classes Actinopterygii and Malacostraca, with Mugiliformes, Cichliformes, and Gobiiformes being the main taxa in their diets. Our results also demonstrated clear patterns of the spatiotemporal variations between the roosting groups and intraspecific variations between the individuals, which potentially reflect some of their feeding habits, and the probable usage of different habitat types in the wetland complex. Using high-throughput sequencing, we were able to elucidate the food resources that are critical to P. minor non-invasively, this method can also be used to provide invaluable information for the conservation of many other waterbird species.
The Beal’s eyed turtle (
Sacalia bealei
) is threatened with extinction due to hunting for large-scale trade. In Hong Kong, there are some of the world’s remaining wild populations of
S. bealei
, as ...well as a breeding colony. This breeding colony is at the core of conservation efforts (captive breeding, reintroduction programs). Therefore, we would like to know how captivity, in particular diet, affects the gut microbiota. Using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene sequencing, we comparatively analyzed the fecal microbiota of wild and captive
S. bealei
. We found that wild
S. bealei
have higher alpha diversity than captive
S. bealei
, but the difference was not significant. Significant differences were found in β-diversity; at the phylum level, wild
S. bealei
have higher relative abundances of Proteobacteria and captive
S. bealei
have higher relative abundances of Firmicutes. At the genus level,
Cetobacterium
and
Citrobacter
are more abundant in wild
S. bealei
, while
Clostridium
spp. are significantly more abundant in captive
S. bealei
. These results suggest conditions in captivity, with diet being a major factor, influence the gut microbiota of
S. bealei
. The connection between diet and health has always been considered for captive animals, and in this study we use the gut microbiota as an another tool to assess health.
The internet has emerged as a popular conduit for wildlife trade. To strategize market monitoring, we need to compare the scale of trade and seller structure on internet platforms and physical ...markets. We simultaneously monitored the turtle trade on two internet platforms (social media, internet forum) and the largest Hong Kong pet market for 12 months. We found that the scale of trade was greatest on social media, with the highest numbers of species (all, potentially illegal, CITES-listed and threatened species) and sellers. The high number of sellers offering potentially illegal and CITES-listed species suggests that the lower barrier to start an online business allows amateur sellers to participate in illegal trade. To curb the trade of turtles and other heavily traded wildlife, it is urgent to scale up and strategize monitoring efforts to regulate online trade. To do so, we recommend: (1) prioritizing online platforms with occasional surveys of physical markets, (2) employing adaptive monitoring efforts (shifting to emerging platforms) and (3) collaborating with social media companies to enforce existing policies prohibiting animal trade.
Turtles from Asia are on the brink of extinction with 53% of species considered endangered or critically endangered. Unfortunately, the ecology of many threatened species remains largely unknown.
In ...this study, the diet of the endangered Beale’s eyed turtle (Sacalia bealei) was investigated using two methods, visual faecal content analysis and stable isotope analysis.
Results from both methods indicated that S. bealei is highly reliant on riparian resources, especially fruits and terrestrial insects. Stable isotope data indicated that terrestrial resources made up around half (47–53%) of all assimilated food resources. These findings suggest that S. bealei facilitates energy flow from riparian forests to stream ecosystems. Moreover, S. bealei is likely to be a seed disperser for riparian plants.
This study represents the first application of stable isotope methods to examine the diet of Asian freshwater turtles and their resource use. We stress the importance of similar studies to improve our understanding of remnant turtle populations before they disappear as a result of human activities.
Bottom trawling, which is highly detrimental to seabed habitats, has been banned in some jurisdictions to mitigate the problems of habitat destruction and overfishing. However, most reports of ...ecosystem responses to trawling impacts originate from temperate latitudes, focusing on commercial species, and recovery of invertebrate macrobenthos from trawl ban has hardly ever been studied in the tropics. In Hong Kong (lat. 22.4°N), a history of intensive trawling with various types of gears has long degraded coastal ecosystems. To facilitate the recovery of fisheries resources and associated benthic ecosystems, the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region implemented a territory-wide trawl ban on December 31, 2012. Comparison of surveys conducted in June 2012 (before the trawl ban) and June 2015 (2.5 years after the ban) revealed higher organic contents in sediment and lower suspended-solid loads in water column, as well as a significant increase in site-based abundance, species richness, functional diversity and among-site similarity of macrobenthos after the trawl ban. Our results suggest that the imposition of a trawl ban can be an effective measure for biodiversity conservation in tropical coastal waters.
We described a new species of elapid snake genus
Bungarus
from the Tenasserim Mountain Range in Ratchaburi Province, western Thailand.
Bungarus sagittatus
sp. nov. can be distinguished from all ...congeners by having the combination of 15 dorsal scale rows; 215–217 ventral scales; 48–56 undivided subcaudal; prefrontal suture 2.4–2.6 times length of internasal suture; anterior chin shields larger than posterior chin shields; head of adult uniform black while juvenile black with small dim white patches on temporal and parietal areas; dorsal body black, with 25–31 white narrow bands, white and black bands at midbody covering 1.5–3.0 and 4.5–6.0 vertebral scales, respectively; dorsal body black bands not intruding ventrals or intruding ventrals less than 0.5 times of width of outer dorsal scales; ventral surface of body immaculate white; ventral side of tail white with a row of dark brown triangular patches on middle pointing posteriorly; tail relatively long, tail length/total length 0.140–0.143. Genetically, the new species has uncorrected pairwise divergences of ≥ 8.29% of the mitochondrial cytochrome
b
from other
Bungarus
species. Currently, the new species is only known from the type locality.
PDF
