2004

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol. 10, pp. 126-128

New Data on the Trade and Captive Breeding ofTurtles in Guangxi Province, South China
HAITAO SHI1, ZHIYONG FAN2, FENG YIN3, AND ZHIGANG YUAN4
1Department of Biology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou , 571158, Hainan Province, P. R. China.

E-mail:haitao-shi@263.net; Fax: 0898-65890520; Tel: 0898-66752479; 65883521.
2Fauna Division, The Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office of China (CNMA)#18 Hepingli Dongjie, Beijing 100714, P. R. China.
3Department of Science and Education, China Wildlife Conservation Association, #18 Hepingli Dongjie,Beijing 100714, P. R. China.
4Department of Biology, Guangxi Medicine University, 530021, Nanning, P.R.China.

Abstract. - New data on the captive breeding and trade of turtles in Guangxi Province, China, are presented. Thesedata are from four turtle farms and three markets surveyed in May 2002. The scale of captive breeding in Guangxi
is larger than previously known. At the same time, the number of wild turtles in the markets may be decreasing.
Issues concerning the licensing of turtle farms and the effectiveness of enforcement are discussed.
Key words. - China, Guangxi, turtles, trade, farming.

Introduction
The People’s Republic of China is Asia’s most significant importer of tortoises and freshwater turtles andmore comprehensive studies on its wildlife trade areurgently needed (Li and Li, 1997; van Dijk, et al., 2000).
There is a long history of wildlife consumption in
Guangxi, and traditional Chinese medicine is as popular
as in neighboring Guangdong Province. Li and Li(1997)
reported that there are at least 91 species of animals
involved in the wildlife trade in Guangxi, mostly turtles
and snakes. The sheer volume of the wildlife trade on
the border between China and Vietnam is astonishing,and may be unprecedented in the history of international wildlife trade. Guangxi is one of the main corridor for
the import and export of wildlife from land and sea into
mainland China. Although China has recently increased
its level of protection for imported and exported turtles(Meng et al., 2002), the effectiveness of these new measures is not well demonstrated. We report data on four
turtle farms and three markets surveyed in late May2002.
Turtle farms
Shifu turtle farm (Shifu Town, Nanping City). - The
turtle farm was founded in 1996, its area is 65 ha. At it’sheight it included ~70,000 turtles: ~60,000 Trachemys
sripta elegans, ~7,000 Pelodiscus sinensis, and ~600
Ocadia sinensis. However during a very heavy flood on
July 5, 2001 in the area, almost all the turtles escaped or© 2004 by Asiatic Herpetological Researchdrowned. The farm is rebuilding, but now includes only~700 Mauremys mutica, ~200 Palea steindachneri and~50 Cuora trifaciata.
Quanming wildlife farm (Located at Quanming
Town, Daxin County). - The farm began to raise turtles
in 1996. It has ~80 Mauremys mutica and 47 Chelydra
serpentina. Their 36 female Chelydra lay 30-35 eggs
three times every year. So they get more than 3000 eggs
every year. They are expanding to include Macroclemys
temminckii. Besides turtles, the wildlife farm also breed
successfully 1800 Tokay Geckos (Gekko gecko) and forseveral decades has also bred the Masked Palm Civet(Paguma larvata).
Qingzhou turtle farm 1 (Qingzhou City). - This farm
has been raising turtles since 1981, but was not very successful until 1997. In 2001, the farm had ~1000
Mauremys mutica and ~300 Cuora trifaciata. In the past
they also bred Trachemys scripta elegans, but switchedto Cuora trifaciata and Mauremys mutica due to thehigher price for the two species. The owner of this farmclaims that there are dozens more farms in Qingzhou
that were founded based stock from his farm. The phenomena of Mauremys mutica mixed with Cuora trifacita was found here, mirroring the conditions of a farm inTunchang, Hainan Province (Shi & Parham, 2001). It
was impossible for us to visit the farm without the local
officials of Forestry Department forcing the farmer toaccept us. The owner prefers to remain secret in order toavoid theft, taxes, and people wanting to borrow money.

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Qingzhou turtle farm 2 (Qingzhou city). - This farm
was founded in 1986. It encompasses 4 hectares, andincludes ~7,000 Mauremys mutica, ~6,000 Trachemys
scripte elegans, ~2700 Pelodicus sinensis, ~800 Cuora
trifaciata, 200 Cuora flavomarginata and 3 Pelochelys
bibroni. Approximately, 30,000 hatchlings are bredevery year. Unlike the owner of the previously reported
farm, the owner of this farm, Wusong Ma, is friendly,generous, and open to visitors. Many famous people
have visited his turtle farm, including a former Chinese
national vice-premier, the Governor of Guangxi, and theMinister of Agriculture Department. Unfortunately, allthis attention may have led to a large theft of Mauremys
mutica in April of 2001. According to the owner of thefarm, the value of these turtles was 50,000 USD. Despite
this, Mr. Ma remains non-secretive and has even set up
at least 20 additional farms.
Remarks on turtle farms. - The senior author (HS)looked over the licenses for captive breeding of turtles at
the Forestry Department of Guangxi Province. Morethan 600 farms (of various sizes, including small breeding operations) were licensed in Guangxi Province. Zou
Yi, an official in the Guangxi Forestry Despartment,
informed us that another governmental department(Agriculture Department) issues even more licenses forturtle farming, but we do not have these numbers.
Moreover, most breeding operations are illegal and notlicensed. Consequently, determining the actual numberof commercial, often secretive, turtle breeders will
require intensive survey and investigation.
Turtle Markets
Nanning Road Trade Market in Nanning City. - Fivestalls with 14 species and 194 turtles were found in thismarket. The species included 58 Pelodiscus sinensis, 24
Pyxidea mouhotii, 21 Platysternon megacephalum, 17
Mauremys mutica, 15 Trachmys scripta elegans,13Cyclemys dentata, 13 Palea steindachneri, 12 Sacalia
quadriocellata, 8 Indotestudo elongata, 4 Cuora
amboinensis, 4 Ocadia sinensis, 2 Heosemys grandis, 1Hieremys annandalei, and1 Orlitia borneensis.
Dongfeng Market in Qingzhou City. - Three stallswith 9 species and 64 were found in Dongfeng Marketin Qingzhou. The species included 19 Trachmys scripta
elegans, 18 Indotestudo elongata, 9 Manouria impressa,
5 Malayemys subtrijuga, 4 Cuora amboinensis, 4Pyxidea mouhotii, 2 Geoemyda spengleri, 2 Heosemys
grandis, and 1 Cuora galbinifrons.

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Danqing Wholesale Market in Nanning City. - 5 stallswith 4 species and 42 turtles were found in this market.
Sixty (71%) of the turtles were Platysternon megacephalum. Platysternon was sold at every stall. I wastold that they came from turtle farms, but they refused totell where these turtle farms were.
Remarks on turtles. - According to Lu Qi, the vicedirector of the Wildlife Management Section of theGuangxi Forestry Department, the past three years haveseen a sharp decrease in the numbers of turtles in themarkets and he attributes this to increased enforcement.
This increased enforcement coincides with an evergrowing commercial effort to breed these turtles. For
example, Manying Huang (professor of biology atGuangxi Medicine University) states that there are over3000 families that raise Cuora trifasciata in Nanning
City. However, the increased level of enforcement has
led to many captive-bred turtles also being confiscated.
If indiscriminant confiscations continue it could depress
the development of captive breeding of turtles in China.

Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Manying Huang, professor at
Guangxi Medicine University, Qi Lu, Zou Yi and others,
officials in Forestry Deaprtment of Guangxi Province,
for their assistance with the survey. This work was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 30260019), Foundation for University Key Teacher
by the Ministry of Education and Wildlife Conservation
Association of China. James Parham helped to correct
the English and provided helpful comments.

Literature Cited
Li, Y. and D. Li. 1997. The investigation on wildlife
trade across Guangxi borders between China andVietnam. Conserving China’s Biodiversity. Reportsof the Biodiversity Working group, China Council
for International Cooperation on Environment andDevelopment: 118-127.
Meng, X., Z. Zhou and B. L. Stuart. 2002. Recent
actions by the People’s Republic of China to better
control international trade of turtles. Turtle andTortoise Newsletter 5:15-16.
Shi, H. and J. F. Parham. 2001. Preliminary
Observations of a large turtle farm in Hainan
Province, People’s Republic of China. Turtle andTortoise Newsletter, issue 3: 4-6.

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van Dijk, P. P., B. L. Stuart and A. G. J. Rhodin (Eds.).
2000. Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of aWorkshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater
Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research
Monographs 2:1-164.

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