- Sixteen turtle enthusiasts from three countries traveled to South Carolina’s Turtle Survival Center in September 2025 for an intensive weeklong course on turtle and tortoise conservation, care and breeding. Mongabay staff writer Liz Kimbrough joined them there.
- More than half of the world’s 359 living turtle and tortoise species now face extinction, with 134 classified as endangered or critically endangered — a crisis driven by the wildlife trade, destruction and pollution of wetlands and rivers, and the species’ slow reproductive biology.
- The center houses approximately 800 turtles representing some of the world’s most critically endangered species, mostly from Southeast Asia. It serves as a “turtle bank” that maintains genetic diversity for species in hopes that their progeny may return to the wild.
- Participants learned hands-on skills ranging from disease prevention to optimal lighting. The course strengthens a global network of turtle conservationists who are bringing their newly honed skills to zoos, aquariums, vet offices and community projects back home.
Deep in the coastal woods of South Carolina, behind high fences, guard dogs, and security cameras, is a group of people who know more about turtles than you.
Posters and paintings of turtles and tortoises are plastered on every wall in the moss-green classroom where they meet. A turtle-themed library occupies one corner, complete with ceramic turtle decor. Looking around, I count dozens of turtle shirts, turtle hats and turtle stickers on water bottles and laptops. There are more than a few turtle tattoos.
This is the Turtle Survival Center in Cross, South Carolina, USA, and it’s hosting the third annual “Turtle School” (officially the “Chelonian Biology, Conservation, and Management Course”).
Imagine Hogwarts, but for turtle nerds.
In September 2025, 16 participants from three countries traveled to the Deep South for a weeklong crash course. Most are specialists from prominent zoos across the U.S. But there’s also a vet from Argentina, a glass artist focused on sea turtle conservation and Madeline Tesolin, a T-shirt seller at concerts from Ontario, Canada, who also drives injured turtles to vets in her spare time.
Over the seven-day intensive, they’ll learn from turtle and tortoise conservation celebrities how to care for chelonians (reptiles in shells) in captivity. They cover optimal temperature, diet, nutrition, water quality, and habitat design; how to breed turtles; ways to spot and address common health problems; how to catch and measure the shelled animals in the wild, and whom to call when turtle questions arise.
“It doesn’t matter what your background is,” Tesolin says. “If you’re passionate about turtles, there is a boundless well. … You can’t stop learning about them.”
An exemplary chelonian facility
Anthony Pierlioni, one of the course instructors, calls the Turtle Survival Center (TSC) “the obvious place” to teach turtle care. At nearly 2.1 meters (7 feet) tall, Pierlioni, a turtle influencer, author, and VP of the nonprofit TurtleRoom, is a tower of enthusiasm. Although he says he has been a “fangirl” of TSC since it opened in 2013, this is his first visit. I join him on his first tour of the facilities.
“Everything is super clean,” Pierlioni declares while filming a video for his YouTube channel. “Every single water bowl is crystal clear, and there is no smell. … I would eat three meals in here!”
We squeal in delight as a group of Asian giant tortoises (Manouria emys phayrei) pursue us in a slow-motion chase, unferociously snapping their jaws. We gasp at the striking shells of the Indochinese box turtles (Cuora galbinifrons) and giggle at the cartoonishly beady eyes of the Rote Island snake-necked turtles (Chelodina mccordi).
But these rare reptiles aren’t so congenial to each other; they require individual space. Both sexes sometimes attack other turtles unpredictably. Males can be aggressive and promiscuous.
“There’s nothing more promiscuous than a Sulawesi forest turtle,” Pierlioni comments.
At TSC, the turtles all have their own space, and the outdoor enclosures are all-inclusive, providing natural substrate, appropriate vegetation for shade, and natural diet options. Think Club Med for rare turtles.
This attention to detail extends to every aspect of care, including proper UV lighting cycles that mimic natural photoperiods, precisely maintained water chemistry, and temperature gradients that allow animals to thermoregulate. Staff track individual animals’ health, diet and reproduction meticulously.
The facility also boasts a veterinary clinic, quarantine spaces, conference room, office space, intern house, indoor and outdoor habitats and specialized breeding areas, incubation room, indoor hatchling rearing room, plus indoor and outdoor juvenile grow-out facilities.
“They just thought of everything,” Pierlioni says.
“They” are the staff and volunteers of TSC, about a dozen people, including Clinton Doak, TSC director of operations, who buzzes about in the background of the course — carrying hoses, buckets, tools and a headful of answers on everything from plumbing to pedigree. He’s been here a decade, since his mid-20s.
“They” are also the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), a global conservation organization that oversees TSC, and whose motto is no surprise: “We Protect Turtles.”
TSA was founded in 2001 in response to the Asian turtle crisis — the rampant harvest of Asian turtle populations to supply largely Chinese markets. Originally established as a task force of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, TSA became an independent, U.S.-based nonprofit in 2004.
Today, TSA supports programs in 30 nations in Asia, Africa, Australia, North, Central and South America and on islands including Madagascar, working to protect and restore wild populations of tortoises and freshwater turtles through science and local community initiatives. The organization’s promise to itself and the world: “Zero Turtle Extinctions.”
Turtles are in trouble
Keeping TSA’s zero-extinction pledge is a tall order. Turtle School and Turtle Survival Alliance were born out of a surging biodiversity crisis: Turtles are in trouble.
More than half the world’s turtle and tortoise species now face extinction, according to the 2025 report, “Turtles in Trouble: The World’s Most Endangered Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles.”
Of 364 species assessed, 201 are threatened or extinct, with 134 classified as endangered or critically endangered. Five species have gone extinct in modern times.
“The crisis is worsening,” says Jordan Gray, one of the report’s editors and TSA’s external relations manager. “Despite all of our collective efforts as a global turtle conservation community, the number and percentage of threatened species have increased.”
The wildlife trade and trafficking of turtles remain major threats. Major destinations for hijacked turtles (destined to become pets, food or ingredients for traditional medicine) are China and Hong Kong, though Southeast Asia and the United States also account for their share.
Back in the classroom, Dave Collins, course instructor and TSA consultant, clicks through grim slides illustrating the illegal turtle trade.
Authorities found 9,888 starving and dehydrated radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) in a vacant house in southwestern Madagascar in 2018. TSA led the care of these critically endangered tortoises.
In the Philippines in 2015, a raid by police confiscated 4,000 live, illegally harvested rare turtles — stacked a dozen deep in large concrete tanks in a Palawan warehouse — only days before they were to be shipped to foreign food and pet markets in China and elsewhere.
In September 2025, undercover raids found 2,339 wild-caught turtles crammed into bins at five locations in Jalisco and Baja California states in Mexico.
In every case, TSA stepped in as major player in the rescue and recovery effort.
Many of the instructors at the survival school are first responders when shipments of turtles are seized by authorities and the animals need medical attention and new homes. They form part of an unofficial international turtle and tortoise task force: the ‘Chelonian Avengers,’ if you will.
Asia, where turtle diversity is highest, remains the epicenter of the turtle crisis, harboring 32 of the 66 most threatened species.
Deforestation for development has devastated turtle populations across China and Southeast Asia. Forest clearing in Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Philippines is destroying the unique species assemblages these ecosystems support.
Turtle eggs are still highly valued as food and turtle parts are harvested for traditional medicine, despite the species’ dwindling numbers. The trade in turtle pets, and as part of private collections, is thriving, with the economics of extinction driving a vicious cycle: Often, the rarer a vanishing species becomes, the more valuable it is rated by sellers and buyers.
Some rare animals can fetch thousands on the black market. For instance a wild-caught Chinese three-striped turtle (Cuora trifasciata) is worth a hefty sum to the right collector. That’s why the multilayered security measures in place at TSC aren’t paranoia.
“The AK-47 is always within reach,” says TSC’s director of animal management and collections, Cris Hagen. “And this is an open carry state,” he adds with a smile. He’s probably joking, but I ask no follow-up questions.
Hagen, an “international man of turtle leisure,” is tattooed like a roadie for a metal band. He has been at the TSC since its inception in 2013 and an employee of the Turtle Survival Alliance since 2010. But he’s been a turtle guy forever, he says, volunteering with reptile outreach at age 12. Cris describes his childhood as “feral.”
One might argue that his adulthood is also rather wild, having lived with “a hundred turtles, three crocodiles, four pit bulls and a gila monster. … Not exactly conducive to finding [human] roommates,” he says.
Hagen, in his dedicated pragmatism, helped establish the TSC as more than just a conservation facility. “We’re a turtle bank,” he states. “It’s a place to keep genetic diversity. … The center itself is a genetic bank for these species to maintain in perpetuity.”
Although the goal is to reintroduce these rare species to the wild whenever possible — an activity TSA has conducted in close cooperation with communities the world over — habitat destruction, the intensifying wildlife trade, wars and other human activities sometimes prevent reintroduction from being possible.
“[Some species] may never return to the wild,” Hagen says, “but they are still here. They’re still in existence.”
Though survival can sometimes be a close-run thing: A freak ice storm in 2014 brought below-freezing temperatures to the coastal plain of South Carolina, but all of TSC’s turtles were kept safe. As climate change intensifies, extreme events like 2024’s devastating Hurricane Helene remain a possibility.
Inside the Turtle Bank
Day to day, the Turtle Survival Center houses approximately 800 turtles representing 27 species, including some of the world’s most critically endangered species. One U.S. native species lives in the center, but the majority are native to Southeast Asia and China. South Carolina’s humid subtropical climate provides a suitable sanctuary for the temperate to tropical species that can no longer survive in their lost native ecosystems.
Some of these turtles are among the last-known wild-caught animals of their species, known as founder animals, which form the genetic foundation for captive breeding programs.
One of the last Rote Island snake-necked turtles, Cris found being sold by a trader just up the road in South Carolina. There may be fewer than 20 wild-caught individuals remaining in captivity in the U.S., Hagen estimates. These form the basis of breeding programs aimed at reintroducing the species to their small, native island in Indonesia.
In the hatchling room at TSC, a tiny Rote Island snake-necked turtle swims in a small plastic tank. It could fit in the palm of your hand, except for its extra-long neck, which supports a set of beady, cartoonish eyes. Hagen estimates fewer than 2,000 individuals of this species are left in the world. This one has no idea it represents one of the last of its kind. It was born yesterday.
The rise and fall of turtles and tortoises has been relatively rapid: More than 130 currently recognized species and subspecies have been described in just the past 50 years. Many faced the threat of extinction within mere decades of their description by science.
“In my life we have seen many species discovered and many decimated,” Hagen says. “These turtles were being described and then basically wiped out before anyone could know where they were, where they lived or how they operated.”
“It’s wild to watch that happen in such a short period after millions and millions of years of evolution,” he adds.
Turtle conservation challenges
Turtle conservation is an uphill battle, says Peter Paul van Dijk, another course instructor who is also field programs director for the Turtle Conservancy and deputy chair of the IUCN SCC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
“The biology of turtles is really very challenging from a conservation perspective,” van Dijk says. “They take a long, long time to reach maturity and have a very small annual reproductive output. But they have an extremely long reproductive lifespan.”
Their survival strategy has worked for millions of years: They produce a few hatchlings, many get eaten, but survivors become nearly indestructible adults living for decades. Eventually, you get a good year when conditions align, hatchlings thrive, they grow up and replace the parental generation. But this takes 20-50 years between generations.
“At 17 years, a snapping turtle can be laying its first eggs,” Collins says.
“When you take out that one young female, you’re not just taking out that one female and this year’s clutch of eggs, you’re also taking out 30 more years of reproduction,” van Dijk says.
Big picture, “It’s a mixed story. On the one hand, we’re making [conservation] progress. At the same time, it feels like you’re standing on the conveyor belt going real fast backwards.” Still, van Dijk maintains hope based in individual action. Unlike many conservation challenges, with turtles, “each one is so important, so one person really can make a difference.”
Turtle conservation also faces a PR problem: Most species have yet to attract anything like the attention that charismatic megafauna like lions or tigers have achieved.
“Before 2000, nobody knew about turtle conservation,” Hagen notes. “It wasn’t a thing.” Sea turtle conservation has been the focus of much attention and success, yet many of the turtles in trouble are rather nondescript.
“It’s hard to get people to care about little brown turtles,” he says.
Turtle School alumni tackle the task
Facing these daunting challenges is the group of experts and students who made the pilgrimage to Turtle School, sponsored by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Chelonian Advisory Group in conjunction with Turtle Survival Alliance. They’re in the course to learn the art and science of stewarding turtle species and to safeguard the last populations on Earth.
And they’re here because they just love turtles, even the little brown ones.
The week is intense: eight-hour days covering everything from turtle evolution to tank filtration engineering. The curriculum mixes classroom sessions with hands-on fieldwork.
Under a blazing South Carolina sun, class participants gather at a necropsy station where Shane Boylan, staff veterinarian for TSC, carefully dissects a dead turtle to determine cause of death. Famed turtle veterinarian and course instructor Charlie Innis looks on with approval. When managing precious rare populations, understanding every mortality matters, he says.
Turtles are susceptible to diseases, but taking proper daily care of them and their captive habitats can lessen risk. Regardless, diseases such as ranavirus, Mycoplasma and turtle herpes still creep in. Most facilities, TSC included, have areas dedicated to quarantining infected animals because some infections are inevitable.
“Pathogens are a part of life,” Hagen says. Despite exemplary care, ranavirus has killed three TSC turtles. The pathogen might have been carried into a greenhouse from an errant native frog hopping in from surrounding forest. This potential exposure is a tradeoff for the open air homes in which the turtles thrive.
Over the course of the week, participants ask a lot of very specific questions concerning care for the turtles living at their zoos and aquariums. “How hardcore do we need to be about sanitation?” one asks. The answer: “Pretty hardcore.”
Several students Mongabay speaks with during and after the course say the curriculum gave them new ideas for improving turtle conditions at their zoos and facilities, ways to enhance breeding or better means of preventing disease outbreaks.
Joseph Boucree, a senior wildlife care specialist from San Diego Zoo, said the presentation on lighting was particularly valuable. Getting photoperiod and UVB exposure right is critical for calcium metabolism and shell development. Details like this can make or break turtle and tortoise health, he explains.
“I am actively using knowledge gained from the course to better the welfare of my animals at the San Diego Zoo,” Boucree tells Mongabay in an email after the course ends. “I have already started modifying the enclosures and diets of my Malagasy spider tortoises (Pyxis arachnoides) to hopefully help increase reproductive output for our breeding program. Bottom line: It was an amazing experience.”
Beyond technical knowledge, the course builds community. “The thing I think was most valuable was being able to talk and interact with so many different turtle people with different backgrounds and expertise,” Boucree says. “We even made a Discord group so we can still keep in contact.”
“I’ve never been surrounded by so many like-minded people,” Tesolin adds. “So that felt incredibly hopeful.”
The day Tesolin returned home from the course, she surprisingly found herself seated in a Toronto restaurant next to someone with a turtle problem. “With the connections I made at Turtle School, I sent [questions] to a bunch of my classmates, and they were able to give advice back.”
Tesolin is part of an Ontario “turtle responder network.” Participants pick up injured turtles along roads and coordinate with volunteer “turtle taxi” drivers who transport the animals to specialized veterinary care. Thanks to Turtle School, Tesolin is now better prepared to care for turtles in need.
The students leaving Turtle School take home upgraded technical skills and connections to help steward species that have survived life on Earth for more than 230 million years. With luck, and an assist from turtle nerds the world over, these species won’t meet their end on our watch.
Banner image of a newly hatched Rote Island snake-necked turtles (Chelodina mccordi) at the Turtle Survival Center in South Carolina, USA. Photo by Liz Kimbrough for Mongabay.
Liz Kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay and holds a Ph.D. in ecology and evolutionary biology from Tulane University, where she studied the microbiomes of trees. View more of her reporting here.
New report warns 54% of turtles and tortoises are at risk of extinction
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