Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Bogabam Here, did you ever date someone,
Speaker 1: perhaps in your less wise years, who sported a green mohawk,
Speaker 1: some strange piercings and seemed to breathe out of their genitals. Well,
Speaker 1: whatever the outcome of that experience, it might also predispose
Speaker 1: you to having a bit of a soft spot for
Speaker 1: the Merry River turtle, which currently ties for thirty on
Speaker 1: the Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered Reptiles List or the
Speaker 1: EDGE List. The list details the one hundred most endangered
Speaker 1: reptiles in the world according to the Zoological Society of London,
Speaker 1: and the tie is three way. The Merry River turtle
Speaker 1: is joined by Bell's sawsheld turtle and the Shaco side
Speaker 1: necked turtle. But what makes the Merry River turtle so
Speaker 1: captivating is the shock of vivid green algae that grows
Speaker 1: on its head, the strange spikes jutting out of its chin,
Speaker 1: and the fact that it can hunker down underwater for
Speaker 1: as long as three days, breathing out of gills located
Speaker 1: in its cloaca, which is the all purpose hole that
Speaker 1: serves for the reproductive, digestive and urinary systems of reptiles,
Speaker 1: as well as other animals like birds and amphibians. It's
Speaker 1: possible that as few as a hundred and thirty six
Speaker 1: of these creatures exist in the wild. They find themselves
Speaker 1: on this precarious footing partly because they have a very
Speaker 1: small native range to begin with, they're very slow to
Speaker 1: reach sexual maturity, they don't breed until they're twenty five
Speaker 1: years old, and their docile temperament and outlandish looks made
Speaker 1: them very popular targets for the exotic pet trade in
Speaker 1: the nineteen sixties and seventies. The Zoological Society of London's
Speaker 1: Edge of Existence program was launched in two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: but its first list that focused exclusively on reptiles came
Speaker 1: out in ten, backed by a study published in April
Speaker 1: of that year in the journal Plos one. The EDGE
Speaker 1: list names exotic reptiles from far flung reaches of the globe,
Speaker 1: including the electric blue Williams dwarf gecko, the earthworm like
Speaker 1: Madagascar blind snake, and the eerily sculptural Indian crocodile the gariel.
Speaker 1: In a press release, Edge Reptiles coordinator Ricky Gums said
Speaker 1: the reptiles often received the short end of the stick
Speaker 1: in conservation terms compared with the likes of birds and mammals. However,
Speaker 1: the Edge Reptile List highlights just how unique, vulnerable, and
Speaker 1: amazing these creatures really are. Not only that, but many
Speaker 1: reptiles represented on the list are the only survivors of
Speaker 1: ancient lineages of reptiles the date back millions of years
Speaker 1: to the age of dinosaurs. Gums said, if we lose
Speaker 1: these species, there will be nothing like them left on Earth.
Speaker 1: Using ZSL's Edge methodology to create the world's first Edge
Speaker 1: Reptile List, and not only are we providing conservation scientists
Speaker 1: with a quantitative tool to prioritize species for conservation, but
Speaker 1: we also hope to bring the plight of these weird
Speaker 1: and wonderful creatures to the public's attention before they disappear.
Speaker 1: Number one on the Edge Reptile List, by the way,
Speaker 1: is the gold plated Madagascar big headed turtle, the world's
Speaker 1: most critically endangered and evolutionarily distinct reptile. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Jesslin Shields and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more in this lots of other curious topics visit how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of i
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