Joint effort to rescue endangered native pond turtles proves successful
A team of biologists — including members from the U.S. Geological Survey, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Forest Service, University of California, Los Angeles, Endemic Environmental Services Inc., Citrus College and San Diego Zoo Global — worked together recently to find and rescue the last remaining reproductively viable population of southwestern pond turtles in the San Gabriel Mountains.
“This is not the first such effort, and almost certainly will not be the last,” said Brad Shaffer, UCLA distinguished professor and director of the La Kretz Center for California Conservation Science. “These turtles will also be part of a range-wide genomic analysis of variation across the species that we are conducting with the CDFW and USGS to better understand and conserve the population, which is the last known of this species in the San Gabriel River.”