News from the Field

Because of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Central Sulawesi in September 2018, we made the decision to put the research on hold so we could give our local counterparts and friends time to grieve and regroup.  In February 2019 we conducted the first field trip to carry out a telemetry study on the Sulawesi Forest Turtle (Leucocephalon yuwonoi). We successfully tagged 10 adult males and 10 adult females with radio transmitters and data was collected through early April 2019. Preliminary analysis of the data suggests that many turtles are active during the evening however some still stay in refuges. One interesting noteuring a morning survey one tagged turtles was located up a very steep hill, estimated to be about +50 meters from the creek.  He was checked on a couple days later and was slowly making his way back down that hill back toward the creek . A second trip to continue the telemetry study will be conducted in July 2019.