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Trotz sorgfältiger inhaltlicher Kontrolle übernimmt orangeturtle design keine Haftung für die Inhalte externer Links. Für den Inhalt der verlinkten Seiten sind ausschließlich deren Betreiber verantwortlich.

Spanish turtle website

The German Chelonia Group (AG Schildkröten) is the largest working group in the DGHT (German Herpetological Society). Our goal is the continuous breeding of turtles and tortoises under captive conditions that closely meet their natural environment and needs. In addition, the German Chelonia Group intensively concentrates on protection of nature and species.
The exploration of the natural habitats of our animals is just as important as the investigation of increasingly more successful caring and breeding strategies is. For many of the chelonian species, there are still only sparse observations available giving information about the natural habitats. We want to contribute to this knowledge scientifically by publishing our observations on behaviour, growth and reproduction, and in this way, we will therefore be supporting species preservation.



We offer our members different possibilities to make contact with like-minded people and exchange experiences. We hold a three-day yearly meeting in the spring and several different one- or two-day regional workshops. Quarterly we publish the RADIATA, the publication of the German Chelonia Group - our readers can choose between an English and a German edition - with a total circulation of 4000 copies. Since November 2002, the members of the German Chelonia Group additionally receive our newsletter MINOR.




We keep statistics of stock and breeding, as well as a member list, where you are welcome to participate. If you are interested in a single genus or species, it is possible to join our specialist groups, the associations. Here you find also competent conversation partners if you have questions about your animals. Heed also our discussion forums for tortoises and turtles. For species that are commonly kept, we offer caring-tips that can be downloaded.

We would be pleased to welcome you as member of the German Chelonia Group.

Ce site est créé dans le but de présenter une partie des tortues que l'on retrouve sur notre planète. Cet animal très sauvage n'est malheureusement pas assez connu du grand public.
C'est à partir des informations contenues dans les fiches des espèces que vous découvrirez les tortues et le mode de vie de chacune d'elles.
Vous participerez donc à leur sauvegarde par la même occasion.

Ein kleiner Auszug...
Land- und Wasserschildkröten
(ca. 50 verschiedene Arten)
ein Kaiman
Schlangen (Riesenschlangen und Nattern)
Echsen (Warane, Agamen, Skinke und Geckos)
Kleinsäuger (Meerschweinchen. Degu, Streifen-,Stachel- und Zwergmäuse)
Insekten (Fang-, Stab- und Dornschrecken)
Spinnen und Skorpione
Fische

...und Flori unser Kakadu

We are Andrea Luison and Stefano Redaelli, two italian turtle's breeders with a deep interest about freshwater and swampy turtles.
In our site you can find many informations about us:
- the species that we keep and breed: our breeding techniques, how we house and care our turtles; with many pictures.
- our publications and works: published articles and books
- many pictures of zoo and park of the world that we visit
- availability and what we are looking for
- news about expos and shows in Italy (specially about Tartarughe Beach)
- everything about Testudo Magazine, the first italian magazine about turtles

Homopus Research Foundation

In 1995, the Studbook Breeding Programme Homopus was started to coordinate studbooks (captive breeding projects) on tortoises of the genus Homopus. This programme was supervised by the European overall studbook foundation "Stichting Overkoepelend Orgaan Stamboeken", now known as European Studbook Foundation (ESF).
In the course of time, the number of activities not directly related to studbook keeping, such as conducting scientific work within the captive populations and in the wild, increased. Therefore, it was decided to condense all activities in a new, broader organisation, named the Homopus Research Foundation. This new organisation was founded in 2000, and has a non-profit tax-exempt status.

CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between Governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

Widespread information nowadays about the endangered status of many prominent species, such as the tiger and elephants, might make the need for such a convention seem obvious. But at the time when the ideas for CITES were first formed, in the 1960s, international discussion of the regulation of wildlife trade for conservation purposes was something relatively new. With hindsight, the need for CITES is clear. Annually, international wildlife trade is estimated to be worth billions of dollars and to include hundreds of millions of plant and animal specimens. The trade is diverse, ranging from live animals and plants to a vast array of wildlife products derived from them, including food products, exotic leather goods, wooden musical instruments, timber, tourist curios and medicines. Levels of exploitation of some animal and plant species are high and the trade in them, together with other factors, such as habitat loss, is capable of heavily depleting their populations and even bringing some species close to extinction. Many wildlife species in trade are not endangered, but the existence of an agreement to ensure the sustainability of the trade is important in order to safeguard these resources for the future.

Because the trade in wild animals and plants crosses borders between countries, the effort to regulate it requires international cooperation to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. Today, it accords varying degrees of protection to more than 30,000 species of animals and plants, whether they are traded as live specimens, fur coats or dried herbs.

CITES was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union). The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington DC., United States of America, on 3 March 1973, , and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force. The original of the Convention was deposited with the Depositary Government in the Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish languages, each version being equally authentic.

CITES is an international agreement to which States (countries) adhere voluntarily. States that have agreed to be bound by the Convention ('joined' CITES) are known as Parties. Although CITES is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention – it does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be respected by each Party, which has to adopt its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.

For many years CITES has been among the conservation agreements with the largest membership, with now 169 Parties.