Hello from the wilds of Montenegro

[Richard Harrison-Cripps]

Hi all,

I just wanted to stick my head up and briefly introduce myself. Unlike most of you I'm not a tortoise keeper but a ecologist with a desire to try to help slow down tortoise population decline in Montenegro, where I've lived for the past 8 years or so.

I'm currently trying to get a fix on local population ranges and the effect of unrestrained land development on Hermann's tortoises here, for the time being all by my lonesome as there's little to no endemic social interest in tortoises or wildlife in general. The longer term aim is the setting of up a chelonian conservation centre to relocate and reintroduce native tortoises and freshwater turtles away from threatened sites and into protected areas, establish captive populations and to establish a local education program.

So ... the reason I'm here is to milk you good folk of every last atom of wisdom that I can, and if any of you ever find yourselves in this neck of the woods I'd be delighted to share a beer and a look around.

Cheers,

Richard

 

[wellington]

Hello and Welcome. Sounds like you have a tuff road ahead. Plug on, and hopefully you will not only help tortoises and turtles, but the also the minds of people. A couple people that might be s lot of help to you, as far as care etc is @Gerards and @Anthony P Good luck and please keep us updated.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hi all,

I just wanted to stick my head up and briefly introduce myself. Unlike most of you I'm not a tortoise keeper but a ecologist with a desire to try to help slow down tortoise population decline in Montenegro, where I've lived for the past 8 years or so.

I'm currently trying to get a fix on local population ranges and the effect of unrestrained land development on Hermann's tortoises here, for the time being all by my lonesome as there's little to no endemic social interest in tortoises or wildlife in general. The longer term aim is the setting of up a chelonian conservation centre to relocate and reintroduce native tortoises and freshwater turtles away from threatened sites and into protected areas, establish captive populations and to establish a local education program.

So ... the reason I'm here is to milk you good folk of every last atom of wisdom that I can, and if any of you ever find yourselves in this neck of the woods I'd be delighted to share a beer and a look around.

Cheers,

Richard

Hello, Richard, and a very warm welcome to Tortoise Forum.
I've been in Morocco for ten years now and although I am a tortoise keeper, it's just the one rescue and the local pets that I help out with.
but I also have the same interest in tortoise decline here and have recently got involved in some conservation activities. Greeks are the indigenous species here of course.
Please PM me if you want to discuss anything further.
And it would be great at some point to pop over and share a beer with you and see the Hermann's torts in their natural habitats.
Good luck, sir!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Richard and welcome to the Forum!

It's a wonderful thing you're doing. We have a very knowledgeable Hermanni person here on the Forum. You may want to contact @HermanniChris and speak with him a bit.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

I'm happy your doing this to help our friends cause torts and turtles are more to us then just pets , we spend a lot of time and efforts for the care of our friends. And maybe we can have a beer together sometime .have a great tort day !

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

@Richard Harrison-Cripps it is good to see your interest here, I wish you great luck in your endeavor. The apathy for wildlife might be to your benefit, in that no one local may care to help, or more importantly perhaps impede what good works may come from your interest.

What is the type of ecology you do? I too have an advanced degree in ecology, but work in oncology research, so not quite what I had in mind at the outset.

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

Montenegro Tortoise Conservation Project
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/1204336003
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/montenegro-tortoise-conservation-project/journal
http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/project/montenegro-tortoise-conservation-project
http://naturalista.conabio.gob.mx/projects/montenegro-tortoise-conservation-project/contributors

Basic interest wild life...
http://www.undiscoveredmontenegro.com/Wildtravel

PR & Marketing manager at Boka Nova - is this still it?

 

[Careym13]

Welcome to TFO!! Glad to have you!

 

[Richard Harrison-Cripps]

Guys, thank you so much for such a warm welcome and encouraging words. Really, really appreciated!

@wellington and @Yvonne G ... thanks for the recommendations. I've just popped a post in the Med. tortoise section that I'm hoping @HermanniChris will rise to!
@Tidgy's Dad. Your Moroccan setup sounds fantastic. I would love to find out more about what's happening over there regarding conservation efforts and your own experiences.
@Will, thanks for those kind words. Back in the real world several years ago I was a herpetologist in the UK, specialising in herp surveys for a environmental consultancy. Prior to that I worked more specifically with turtles and tortoises at the Chelonian Research Institute in Florida with Peter Pritchard and done a fair bit of field work in Kenya. Oncology ... wow. Huge amounts of kudos to you! P.S. No longer anything to do with BokaNova. That was a little bit of helping out a friend. PR & Marketing Manager was a generous title. I tended to spend most of my time writing up tortoise survey reports, but don't tell the ex-boss!!

 

[Speedy-1]

Hi and welcome !

 

[pam]

Welcome

 

[Merrick]

Welcome I hope this site helps you with helping tortoises

 

[Kapidolo Farms]

I hope when you were at the CRI you didn't park in Darwin's place, I hear he got testy about that. Thanks for fleshing out the work you have done, it helps me, at least better understand the work you may do.

 

[Camp]

Welcome!

 

[Richard Harrison-Cripps]

Thanks everyone!
@Will , I almost forgot about Peter's car park space names! I never had a permanent car, but whenever I borrowed anyone else's I tended to park in Professor Agassiz's space. Since I was too ignorant to know too much about him at the time, I figured he was the least likely to come back to haunt me!