The New York Turtle and Tortoise Society announces
Seminar 2019
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Check-in 9:30 a.m.; Sessions 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River at Beczak
35 Alexander Street, Yonkers, New York 10701
Seminar 2019 speakers: Anne Meylan, Peter Meylan, and Don Boyer Photo by Bill Cermak
Sarah Lawrence College Center for the Urban River
at Beczak in Yonkers, New York
Program
Morning Session (10:00 a.m.–12:00 noon) Welcome and Announcements
Don Boyer
Don Boyer
Curator of Herpetology, WCS/Bronx Zoo “Current Highlights of the WCS/Bronx Zoo
Department of Herpetology”
Don Boyer will discuss several key aspects of the department's herp programs. This will include a discussion on assistance provided to wildlife authorities in dealing with reptile confiscations. He will also give a short summary on three conservation programs involving two amphibian and one reptile species.
Don Boyer began persuing a lifelong interest in herpetology as a young boy, roaming the back woods of Maryland looking for box turtles. In the 5th grade he began volunteering at the Baltimore Zoo Reptile House and made up his mind to have a career in zoo herpetology. Don worked at the San Antonio Zoo, Dallas Zoo, and San Diego prior to joining the WCS team in 2011. He has a broad background in zoo herpetology, working with a tremendous diversity of species. Reptile husbandry, exhibit design, and collection management are his forté. He is a member of th e Turtle Survival Alliance and the IUCN Freshwater Turtle and Tortoise Specialist Group. It would be difficult to pick just one group of reptiles he prefers, but he has a worked extensively with a variety of turtle and tortoise species—ranging from giant Galápagos tortoises to diminutive species such as four-eyed turtles. The Bronx Zoo has a long history with chelonians, and Don is working to again build the collection with a focus toward smaller Asian species and also develop new facilities for increased capacity.
— Lunch —
Afternoon Session (2:00–5:00 p.m.)
Peter Meylan
Peter A. Meylan
R.R. Hallin Professor of Natural Sciences, Emeritus, Eckerd College “Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles”
The living turtle fauna of Florida is significant on a global scale. The twenty-eight species belong to seven of 14 living turtle families, so, in a sense, half of the kinds of turtles in the world are represented in Florida. By carefully examining the distributions of all of the world’s turtles, biologists have identified two centers of global diversity. One of them is in Bangladesh at the mouth of the Ganges River. The other is in the southeastern United States, with the highest diversity reached in the Panhandle of Florida and adjacent Mobile Bay. Thus, Florida stands out as an extremely important center of worldwide turtle diversity.
In 1994 and again in 1999, George Heinrich and I organized meetings on the Status and Conservation of Florida Turtles, which were held at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. At the second meeting, a group of about 40 turtle specialists determined that it would be useful to put together a volume on the biology and conservation of Florida turtles. I was the editor of the volume, which was published in 2006. My presentation is a summary of what I learned by working with my coauthors to assemble this volume on the Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles (PDF).
Peter Meylan teaching students from Eckerd College how to measure turtles for his Rainbow Run mark/recapture project, which was initiated in 1990.
Dr. Peter Meylan is R.R. Hallin Professor, Emeritus at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he taught biology from 1989 to 2018. His research interests focus on the morphology, phylogeny, and ecology of turtles. From 1985 to 2005 he collaborated with Gene Gaffney (American Museum of Natural History) on studies of turtle phylogeny. He conducts marine turtle research with his wife (Dr. Anne Meylan) in Bocas del Toro, Panama, and in Bermuda. He has studied turtles in Florida springs since starting a project in the Rainbow River, Marion Co., in 1990. In 2006 he published an edited volume on the Biology and Conservation of Florida Turtles.
Anne Meylan
Anne B. Meylan
Senior Research Scientist, Florida Fish
and Wildlife Conservation Commission, retired “Ecology and Migrations of Marine Turtles of
Bocas del Toro Province, Panama”
In 1989, Anne and Peter Meylan initiated the research project, Ecology and Migrations of Marine Turtles of Bocas del Toro Province, Panama (PDF). Bocas del Toro has a particularly diverse marine turtle fauna with four species and multiple life history stages represented. Green turtles, hawksbills, leatherbacks and loggerheads occur at our study sites in the Chiriqui Lagoon and Bastimentos Island National Marine Park but the first two species have been the primary focus of our studies. The research includes an in-water component based on captures with traditional turtle nets, and studies based on the nesting beach where hawksbills are the primary species encountered. The presentation will discuss aspects of the biology of these species learned via tagging, satellite tracking, laparoscopy, and genetic analyses. Trends in nest counts of hawksbills
Anne Meylan confers with Virgilio Beker, Ramiro Beker and Arcelio Gonzales Hooker about
the protocol for hawksbill nesting surveys at Playa Larga, Bastimentos Island National Marine Park, Panama.
will be presented based on intensive surveys carried out since 2003. Anne will discuss historical and current conservation threats to marine turtles in Bocas Province and the positive role of the national marine park, CITES, and the involvement of members of indigenous communities in the research and monitoring. Dr. Anne Meylan recently retired from a position as a Senior Research Scientist in the Marine Turtle Research program of the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in St. Petersburg, Florida. She received her PhD from the University of Florida in 1984 working with Dr. Archie Carr. Anne has conducted extensive studies of the ecology and migrations of marine turtles in Florida and throughout the greater Caribbean, with emphasis on feeding ecology, reproductive biology, migrations, and conservation status.
