In Virginia and beyond, turtles are in crisis. To protect them, conservationists are turning their attention to a dangerous phenomenon that’s putting the reptiles at risk: poaching.
Though it is illegal to relocate, sell, or purchase native turtles in the commonwealth, poachers remove turtles from their habitats and sell them, both domestically and overseas, in devastating numbers, according to Tom Akre, a conservation ecologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
They are sometimes used as food, in traditional medicine, and are often sold as pets.
Turtles are hit especially hard by poaching because they age and reproduce slowly, and very few of their hatchlings survive to adulthood. “When we take out an adult, that can destroy that whole local population,” says Caroline Seitz, education chair of the Virginia Herpetological Society. Some species of greatest concern are the wood turtle, spotted turtle, and woodland box turtle.
While it’s unknown exactly how many turtles have been poached from Virginia, the Department of Wildlife Resources recovered 750 reptiles, including 650 turtles, between spring 2021 and spring 2023, according to Sgt. Dan Rabago, a conservation police officer with DWR. The potential market value equates to $35,000 in the U.S. or $155,000 overseas.
Reptile poaching began around the 1970s, Rabago says, but has escalated in recent years to “become a much more efficient money making venture, a true black market.”
This isn’t the only problem reptiles are facing, but it’s one of the most sinister. Akre describes illegal trade as one of the “four horsemen of the wildlife apocalypse,” alongside habitat loss, disease, and climate change. Still, poaching “remains the biggest challenge, because it is the most obscure to us,” he says.
Several organizations are working to stop illegal trade and restore turtle populations. DWR last October passed a resolution to acknowledge that illegal trade is a significant threat to native species and to expand its efforts to stop poaching, including the addition of four agents to its special operations unit.
“Turtles have been around since the dinosaurs. Turtles have been here way longer than people have,” Seitz says. “And hopefully they’re going to continue to be here for a long, long time.”
How You Can Help
- Leave turtles where they are when you see them. If they’re in the road, move them to safety in the direction they are headed.
- Increase the diversity of native plants in your yard to provide safe habitats.
- Report box turtle sightings to the Virginia Herpetological Society so it can track the population
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
This story originally ran in our March issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
