ARCO-Nepal

29/04/2026

Longevity of Tortoises!

Source: Associated organization/creator

27/04/2026

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I Can Tell That We are Gonna be Friends!

What's not to love about a Gila Monster hanging with a Desert Tortoise? These friends get along just fine when it comes to sharing space, but it's not just Gilas that hang at Tortoise's house. You can think of the Desert Tortoises as home-builders for the entire community. Both the Mojave and the Sonoran Desert Tortoises provide huge benefits for their neighbors from Utah to Mexico. More than 30 different species utilize Desert Tortoise burrows in some way, either as a valuable spot to escape the desert heat, or cold, for a few hours, or as a secure, cozy location to raise a family. Many species of mammals, reptile, bird, and invertebrates regularly stop by for a burrow visit, or live there long term. Desert Tortoises are truly an essential pillar of the local community and protecting tortoises, protects so many more desert residents!



Photo: James Vanas, 2nd Place “Other Desert Animals” category, 51st Symposium Photo Contest

19/04/2026

Sea turtles of the world by Wildlife Nomads

16/04/2026

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15/04/2026

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It is the date in 2012 when and ARCO-Nepal signed a MoU to establish the Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre .

In situ photo of
©Tapil Rai, TRCC (ARCO-Nepal & SUMMEF Nepal)

10/04/2026

Recently, the President of ARCO-Nepal, Dr. Peter Praschag, and his friend, Mr. Bongui, visited Nepal for a week. He made a field visit to Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre - TRCC, followed by a meeting with the President of the partnership organization, SUMMEF Nepal, Mr. Arjun Rai.

Afterwards, the team visited Betana Wetland, Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, Chitwan National Park, Central Zoo, the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, and the Natural History Museum to meet with their heads to discuss perspectives on possible collaboration. 🐢🐢🐢

ARCO-Nepal Turtle Rescue and Conservation Centre - TRCC TRCC - Turtle's Club

08/04/2026

Meeting between ARCO-Nepal's President, Dr. Peter Praschag (left) and the Director of Central Zoo, Mr. Satya Narayan Shah (right) in Kathmandu

04/04/2026

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A snail-eating turtle of the group Baenidae. It is sitting on a land turtle of the genus , which became extinct at the end of the period. In the background is a skull of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Reconstruction by Joschua Knüppe

🔓 Ecological selectivity of diet on turtle K/Pg survivorship
DOI: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0790 🔓 [2026] 🐢 🐌



The Cretaceous/Palaeogene (K/Pg) mass extinction was catastrophic, eliminating much of terrestrial life and entire iconic vertebrate groups, such as non-avian dinosaurs and many large marine reptiles. , however, were one of the less affected reptilian groups, persisting into the Cenozoic with minimal diversity loss. Diet has been suggested to explain high turtle survivorship, as multiple K/Pg survivors exhibit durophagous adaptations, but this has never been properly tested. We use phylogenetic comparative methods to map across turtle evolution and statistically test a relationship between turtle survivorship and durophagy. Turtles evolved durophagy multiple times over the course of their history, and our results indicate that the number of durophage lineages was more stable across the K/Pg transition than that of non-durophages. Additionally, our findings show that durophagy is positively correlated with turtle K/Pg survivorship, whereby durophagous species exhibit higher predicted survival probabilities. As non-durophagous turtle lineages also survive, albeit with lower probability, other factors might also influence turtle survivorship. Overall, this study provides numerical evidence for dietary ecological selectivity among turtle survivors at the end-Cretaceous crisis. Future taxonomic assessments of the turtle fossil record around the K/Pg boundary will be key to refine these results.



🐢 🐌

G. Hermanson and S. W. Evers. 2026.
Biol Lett (2026) 22 (3): 20250790 .
DOI: doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0790

26/03/2026

Zoo educator and mentoring of young researchers are the responsibilities in addition to working as the Lead Keeper.

It was fun guiding Ms. , B.Sc. (Zoology), a fourth-year student of , Bhadrapur, for her thesis work.
Best wishes for your turtle research. 🐢

Thanks to the SUMMEF Park and Senior Turtle Keeper for the cooperation.

- Lead Keeper and Representative , TRCC

-Nepal Rescue and Conservation Centre -TRCC TRCC - Turtle's Club

25/03/2026

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