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Pelomedusidae
Pelusios castaneus
In its natural habitat Pelusios castaneus is heavily harvested for food by the human population, mainly because of its reasonable size.
Pelusios castaneus is the Pelusios species most frequently exported out of some countries where it occurs, being sold by the thousands in the USA, Europe and Japan.
The biggest threat to Pelusios castaneus at present is the loss of habitat to land cultivation and the progressive drying of its habitat. The most vulnerable habitats are those in the area near the Sahara desert.
Studbooks
The European Studbook Foundation (ESF, www.studbooks.eu) has at present 3 studbooks for Pelusios species: Pelusios castaneus, Pelusios niger and Pelusios carinatus. A studbook for Pelomedusa subrufa is also maintained.
The studbook for Pelusios started with a studbook for Pelusios
species in general and the studbook was started at September 1st, 2004.
During the months before this date we have been occupied with an
investigation to the status of the population of Pelusios in
the Netherlands. We also investigated which species were present.
During our research we came to the conclusion that in the near future a
studbook for Pelusios species would be desirable.
The opening of the studbook came a few steps closer when the board of
the ESF became aware of our project and they advised us to make a
proposal for a studbook. We followed this advise and within a few weeks
the Pelusios studbook came to realization.
Pelusios are not frequently encountered in captivity. It is rare to find a turtle keeper that has more than just one Pelusios in his collection, let alone a breeding couple. Breeding Pelusios
has only occurred with just a few turtle breeders. Therefore a studbook
is needed to manage the participating turtles, making sure breeding
couples will be formed.
The last decades Pelusios have been imported in impressive numbers and
still are being imported in numbers. However, Pelusios are not popular
among turtle keepers. This is probably caused by their dull colors or
because they simply aren't rare enough to earn their place within a
turtle collection.
Being a European studbook, Pelusios keepers from other European countries were asked to participate.
With the participation of more Pelusios keepers grew the number of species kept as well the number of individual turtles.
However, most important is the uniting of knowledge and experience from different Pelusios keepers, helping to keep a healthy studbook.
Although the studbook population can not be considered big, it is
stable. We are convinced that the current number of participants can
together produce many hatchlings per year, if needed. Unfortunately
experience shows it is difficult to relocate captive-bred offspring.
At present there is no cooperation between the ESF Pelusios
studbook and zoos. We hope this will change in the future. There is
however good contact between the studbook and breeders in the United
States.
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