Meg, the Fulbright ecologist extraordinaire, who we visited in Kuala Terengganu
The mysterious abrasion
Terrapin turtle
Locals refuse to hold the turtle, at first
Finally accepted
Men sit at a separate house from the Muslim women.
Muslim women sit separate, but the sexes do mix in their own home.
Turtle race and release!Our friend Meg, the Terengganu turtle researcher, warned us before our visit that we may see NO turtles during our stay. They are the most endangered turtles in the world, these terrapin turtles in this part of Malaysia. Even though we came during nesting season, when the turtles come out of the water to lay eggs riverside, we still might not see any turtles.
But, one day as we lay on the ocean beach, Meg called to say she had 3 turtles! All 7 of us rushed there and found them in a bucket. The Turtle Conservation Centre, where Meg works, pays locals to find wayward turtles and take them to TCC to be tagged, weighed, and checked out, then released. The local beach village kids gathered with us and Meg to see the turtles.
Meg taught us all about the turtles. Click HERE to see some of her teaching. You can't help but love these turtles. They have a permanent smile on their faces and don't really bite. They have a mysterious abrasion on their bottoms, she's not sure where from. They are nearly extinct because their eggs are sold at the local markets. In fact, the eggs are such big business now that Meg discovered that the men who stay up all nite, smoking, waiting for the mom turtles to nest on shore are actually paid a salary by someone in the big city an hour away. She'd previously thought that the egg eating and selling was all loca. Now it's getting bigger, and harder to contain as a result. She offered to buy each egg for the going rate of about $2 per egg. But, she got no calls from them later.
What the turtle egg stealers do is they catch a mom coming to shore to lay an egg, then they put the mom in a shallow hole at their home. They wait til she lays her eggs, then they return her to the river (supposedly) and sell all her eggs at the market. Hence, all the turtle population is dying out with no replacements.
Meg handed us the turtles and we eagerly held them. She offered them to the local kids but we were surprised that the girls refused to hold them, initially. We thought they'd be holding turtles on a daily basis, with the turtles' river as their backyard! After a bit, a couple accepted the turtles. And we all went down to the river to release them...
Alice's blog: I was bringing the turtle down to the river. The turtle legs can kick your hands as you hold them. We were at the river. We let go of the turtles at the same time. The other two turtles got released. But, my turtle didn't know where to go. It went towards a small boat. I had to bring it all the way to the river to make it go into the water. It went into the water. Click HERE to see the turtle release.
