What Reptiles Are Most Endangered?

Cute, fuzzy mammals often get all the attention (and funding) when they land on endangered species lists, but now reptiles are getting an equal spotlight. Learn about the effort to identify and preserve these animals in today's episode of BrainStuff.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
brain Stuff, Lauren Bogabam Here, did you ever date someone,
perhaps in your less wise years, who sported a green mohawk,
some strange piercings and seemed to breathe out of their genitals. Well,
whatever the outcome of that experience, it might also predispose

(00:22):
you to having a bit of a soft spot for
the Merry River turtle, which currently ties for thirty on
the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered Reptiles List or the
EDGE List. The list details the one hundred most endangered
reptiles in the world according to the Zoological Society of London,
and the tie is three way. The Merry River turtle

(00:44):
is joined by Bell's sawsheld turtle and the Shaco side
necked turtle. But what makes the Merry River turtle so
captivating is the shock of vivid green algae that grows
on its head, the strange spikes jutting out of its chin,
and the fact that it can hunker down underwater for
as long as three days, breathing out of gills located
in its cloaca, which is the all purpose hole that

(01:07):
serves for the reproductive, digestive and urinary systems of reptiles,
as well as other animals like birds and amphibians. It's
possible that as few as a hundred and thirty six
of these creatures exist in the wild. They find themselves
on this precarious footing partly because they have a very
small native range to begin with, they're very slow to
reach sexual maturity, they don't breed until they're twenty five

(01:29):
years old, and their docile temperament and outlandish looks made
them very popular targets for the exotic pet trade in
the nineteen sixties and seventies. The Zoological Society of London's
Edge of Existence program was launched in two thousand seven,
but its first list that focused exclusively on reptiles came
out in ten, backed by a study published in April

(01:50):
of that year in the journal Plos one. The EDGE
list names exotic reptiles from far flung reaches of the globe,
including the electric blue Williams dwarf gecko, the earthworm like
Madagascar blind snake, and the eerily sculptural Indian crocodile the gariel.
In a press release, Edge Reptiles coordinator Ricky Gums said

(02:12):
the reptiles often received the short end of the stick
in conservation terms compared with the likes of birds and mammals. However,
the Edge Reptile List highlights just how unique, vulnerable, and
amazing these creatures really are. Not only that, but many
reptiles represented on the list are the only survivors of
ancient lineages of reptiles the date back millions of years

(02:33):
to the age of dinosaurs. Gums said, if we lose
these species, there will be nothing like them left on Earth.
Using ZSL's Edge methodology to create the world's first Edge
Reptile List, and not only are we providing conservation scientists
with a quantitative tool to prioritize species for conservation, but
we also hope to bring the plight of these weird

(02:55):
and wonderful creatures to the public's attention before they disappear.
Number one on the Edge Reptile List, by the way,
is the gold plated Madagascar big headed turtle, the world's
most critically endangered and evolutionarily distinct reptile. Today's episode was

(03:16):
written by Jesslin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For
more in this lots of other curious topics visit how
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