Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 317-319 (2020) (published online on 14 April 2020)
New record of the endangered green sea turtle Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) (Testudines: Cheloniidae) from Iraq
Muhanad Al-Jaberi1, Rasoul Karamiani2,*, Khalid Al-Fartosi3, and Aref Shamkhi Jabber4
The green sea turtle Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) The Third River is a major trocar established for the is distributed in the tropical and subtropical oceans of expansion of irrigation projects; it collects water from the world and its range extends well into the Arctic the taps for agricultural projects and prevents mixing it Circle (Arthur et al., 2008; Rhodin et al., 2017). This with the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to secure its transfer turtle migrates through geographically diverse habitats to the Shatt Al-Basra and then the Persian Gulf (Fig. 1). in more than eighty states worldwide where nesting The specimen was transferred to the directorate of the happens (Hirth, 1997). Features of their life-history (e.g., environmental conservation organization of Thi-Qar long-lived, late maturation, highly migratory) make to have pictures taken and measurements made, and them vulnerable to land and sea anthropogenic impacts then returned to its habitat in Al-Masab Al-Aam (Third (Summers et al., 2018), due to overharvesting, habitat River) (Fig. 2). destruction and disease leading to its current designation The turtle was identified based on Leviton et al. (1992). as an endangered species by the International Union for Morphometric and meristic characters of the specimen the Conservation of Nature species (IUCN 2019). of Chelonia mydas were taken by a flexible plastic tape Green sea turtles exclusively feed on macrophytes measure. The terms used in the study conform to Bolten (seagrass and algae) (Hemminga and Duarte, 2000). (1999), Arthur et al. (2008) and Maxwell et al. (2019) as Chelonia mydas is slow to reach maturity and reach adulthood between 30 and 50 years of age, remain close to their nesting beaches until reproduction, and have an inter-nesting period of approximately two weeks, with up to nine clutches each season (Hasbún et al., 2000). The turtle’s range extends throughout tropical and subtropical seas around the world, with two distinct populations in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, but it is also found in the Indian Ocean (Ferri , 2002). Green sea turtles have been observed breeding in the Persian Gulf (Leviton et al. 1992; Pilcher and Basintal, 2000). On 22 August 2019 a specimen of the green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas was caught by fishermen in Al-Masab Al-Aam (Third River), Thi-Qar Province, southern Iraq.
1 Alshuhada secondary school, General Directorate of Education, Thi-Qar, Iraq. 2 Environmental Research Center, Razi University, 6714967346 Kermanshah, Iran. Figure 1. The triangle represents the locality recorded for the 3 College of Science, Thi-Qar University, Iraq. specimen of Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus, 1758) from Al-Masab 4 Ministry of Environment, Thi-Qar Environment, Thi-Qar, Iraq. Al-Aam (30° 48′ 7.97″ N, 46° 23′ 12.85″ E), Thi-Qar Province, * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] southern Iraq. 318 Muhanad Al-Jaberi et al.
Figure 2. A) The adult specimen of chelonia mydas recorded in late week of August, 2019; B) the animal was released in its habitat, after measurement metric and meristic characters were recorded, in Al-Masab Al-Aam (Third River), Thi-Qar Province, southern Iraq.
follows: curved carapace length (CCL) 82 cm, curved Acknowledgments. The authors thank Prof. Kraig Adler (Cornell carapace width (CCW) 74 cm, plastron length (PL) 61 University) for his kind help to improve the English (omit level) cm, forelimb length (FL) 38 cm, hindlimb length (HLL) of our manuscript. The senior author would like to thank Thi- Qar Directorate of Education for the opportunity to work in this 24 cm, head length (HL) 20 cm, head width (HW) 12 field. cm. The meristic traits consisted of the carapace and plastron scute patterns including: one nuchal shield, References five vertebral shields, eight costal shields from both the left and right, 22 marginal shields from both the left Arthur, K.E., Boyle, M.C., Limpus, C.J. (2008): Ontogenetic and right, two supracaudal shields, two gular shields, changes in diet and habitat use in green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) life history. Marine Ecology Progress Series 362: 303– one intergular shield, two humeral shields, two Pectoral 311. shields, two abdominal shields, two femoral shields, Bolten, A.B. (1999): Techniques for Measuring Sea Turtles. and two anal shields. In: Eckert, K.L., K.A. Bjorndal, F.A. Abreu-Grobois & M. The head in Chelonia mydas is heart-shaped with a Donnelly (eds). Research and Management Techniques for snout that is very short, Carapace with sloping marginal the Conservation of Sea Turtles. IUCN/SSC Marine Turtle scutes; first vertebral in contact with first marginal; Specialist Group Publication No. 4. forelimbs long with large scales overlying phalanges; Ferri, V. (2002): Turtles & Tortoises. A Firefly Guide. New York, Firefly Books. usually four postocular scales; greenish or olive brown Hasbún, C.R., Lawrence, A.J., Samour, J.H., Al-Ghais, S.M. above; carapace broad, heart-shaped, without vertebral (2000): Preliminary observations on the biology of green turtles, keel, but often markedly indented above hind limbs. Chelonia mydas, from the United Arab Emirates. Aquatic This record represents the first record of the species Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 10: 311–322. Chelonia mydas, from Iraq. The range extension is Hemminga, M.A., Duarte, C.M. (2000): Seagrass ecology. approximately 320 km direct air distance from the Cambridge University Press. closest previously known locality on Qaru and Umm Hirth, H.F. (1997): Synopsis of the biological data on the green turtle Chelonia mydas (Linnaeus 1758) (Vol. 2). Fish and Al-Maradim islands in Kuwait (Papathanasopoulou, Wildlife Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington, 2009). Regarding the values of head dimension size, D. C., USA. our specimen was larger than previously measured IUCN (2019): The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version specimens from Punta Abreojos, Baja California Sur, 2019-3. http://www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 10 Mexico and Otsuchi, Japan (Marshall et al., 2014). We December 2019. believe that green sea turtles Chelonia mydas migrated Leviton, A.E., Anderson, S.C., Adler, K., Minton, S.A. (1992): over long distances from the Persian Gulf to Third River Handbook to Middle East Amphibians and Reptiles. Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Oxford, Ohio, USA. to lay eggs or perhaps due to rising sea level. Marshall, C.D., Wang, J., Rocha-Olivares, A., Godinez-Reyes, C., Fisler, S., Narazaki, T., Sato, K., Sterba-Boatwright, B.D. New record of the endangered green sea turtle from Iraq 319
(2014): Scaling of bite performance with head and carapace morphometrics in green turtles (Chelonia mydas). Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 451: 91–97. Maxwell, S.M., Broderick, A.C., Dutton, P.H., Fossette-Halot, S., Fuentes, M.M., Reina, R.D. (2019): Editorial: Advances in the Biology and Conservation of Marine Turtles. Frontiers in Marine Science 6: 4–6. Papathanasopoulou, N. (2009): Endangered sea-turtles nesting on Kuwait Islands. Biodiversity East.
Accepted by Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani