Freshwater Turtles as a Renewable Resource: Using the Red-Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) as a Model Species
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Freshwater turtles have a long history of being utilized by humans. For centuries, turtles have been used as a protein resource and in traditional medicine, playing an important role in cultures across the globe. Wild turtle harvests have historically and currently been unsustainable. While some regulatory regimes have been implemented in different regions, many taxa remain unprotected and there is a need for improving the current regimes. The objective of my work was to assess the problem of unsustainable freshwater turtle harvest and commercial trade in the United States of America (US), focusing first on the entire southeast region and then specifically on the Texas harvest paradigm. My work also sought solutions, such as commercial turtle farming as an alternative to wild population harvest. The results provide evidence of large, unsustainable exports of freshwater turtles continuing out of the US, despite recently implemented restrictions on turtle harvest in several states of the Southeast US. Moreover, I provide evidence of the negative consequences from non-uniform harvest regimes across the Southeast US. Turtle harvest regulations in Texas are based on assumptions regarding the overland movement patterns of adult red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) on the landscape. To test these, I developed a novel method of monitoring those movements, achieving a higher resolution than had been previously reported. Implementing the new monitoring technique allowed me to evaluate the source-sink harvest paradigm applied to Texas freshwater turtle populations. The results are evidence for flaws in the current management regime in Texas, but provide a direction for future studies that can help improve this management. Finally, modeling biological data alongside economic information on farming red-eared sliders in Louisiana demonstrated the economic challenges of farming red-eared sliders for meat markets. While it gives a perspective of how the future market may develop, it highlights some of the difficulties to achieving sustainability in the commercial trade of turtles for meat.