Posted Sep 30, 2022, 1:58 PM
And… 500! It was on a rainy day and following 400 other congeners for ten years that a hundred European pond turtles were released near Lauterbourg, in the north of Bas-Rhin, very close to the German border. , in the month of September. These reptiles with black shells and skin spotted with yellow disappeared a century and a half ago from Alsace due to the destruction of wetlands, under the pressure of urbanization and road infrastructure in particular. Omnivores, they nevertheless play a central role for ecosystems and serve as an “umbrella species” for animals and plants.
The Alsatian reintroduction program which aimed to release 500 individuals, one of the largest in France, will have cost more than 1.3 million euros overall. It was initiated more than twenty years ago by the Departmental Council of Bas-Rhin, which has since been merged into the European Community of Alsace (CEA). These two decades have notably enabled the renaturation of an old gravel pit to accommodate released individuals and the creation of breeding stations in the neighboring department of Haut-Rhin (Petite Camargue alsacienne near Saint-Louis, Zoological and Botanical Park of Mulhouse ), joined today by the Animal Park of Sainte-Croix, in Moselle.
Scientific monitoring
On the scientific level, it is currently the only European pond reintroduction program with “rigorous monitoring to give values” as to the future of individuals born in captivity and then released, explains Jean-Yves Georges, researcher at the CNRS/Hubert Curien multidisciplinary institute in Strasbourg. It is too early to know what will become of the hundred or so turtles introduced in September. Of the 400 that preceded them, about a quarter have survived and a few reproductions have been observed from year to year. Individuals released in Germany five kilometers away migrated to Lauterbourg. Those reintroduced in France who would disperse outside the monitoring areas cannot be detected, specifies Denis Schwab, head of the natural spaces unit at the CEA. Some “more anecdotal” releases could still take place to respond to the mortality factor.
The Alsatian monitoring will eventually be compared with other reintroduction reports in Europe. A European project, Emys-R, was launched in April 2022 to bring together French, German, Latvian and Polish teams and draw a socio-ecological assessment of wetland restoration actions for the purpose of reintroducing European pond turtles.
What benchmarks in a constantly changing world?
Political uncertainties, scientific innovations, war in Ukraine, energy and ecological transition… How to understand these changes? How to position yourself? Every day, the 200 journalists from the “Echos” editorial staff help you decipher economic, political and international news through surveys, analyses, press reviews, chronicles and editorials. Our subscribers know that they can rely on these resources to better navigate our complex environment and make the best strategic decisions.