Island of misfit tortoises: waif gopher tortoise health assessment following translocation

Rebecca K McKee; Kurt A Buhlmann; Clinton T Moore; Matthew C Allender; Nicole I Stacy; Tracey D Tuberville

doi:10.1093/conphys/coac051

Island of misfit tortoises: waif gopher tortoise health assessment following translocation

Conserv Physiol. 2022 Jul 27;10(1):coac051. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coac051. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Rebecca K McKee^{1

2}, Kurt A Buhlmann¹, Clinton T Moore³, Matthew C Allender⁴, Nicole I Stacy⁵, Tracey D Tuberville¹

Affiliations

¹ Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, University of Georgia, PO Drawer E, Aiken, SC 29802, USA.
² Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Georgia, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
³ U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, 180 E Green Street, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
⁴ Wildlife Epidemiology Lab, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Illinois, 2001 S. Lincoln Ave., Urbana, IL 61802, USA.
⁵ Department of Comparative, Diagnostic, and Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, 2015 SW 16th Ave, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.

Abstract

Translocation, the intentional movement of animals from one location to another, is a common management practice for the gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus). Although the inadvertent spread of pathogens is a concern with any translocation effort, waif tortoises-individuals that have been collected illegally, injured and rehabilitated or have unknown origins-are generally excluded from translocation efforts due to heightened concerns of introducing pathogens and subsequent disease to naïve populations. However, repurposing these long-lived animals for species recovery is desirable when feasible, and introducing waif tortoises may bolster small populations facing extirpation. The objective of this study was to assess the health of waif tortoises experimentally released at an isolated preserve in Aiken County, SC, USA. Our assessments included visual examination, screening for 14 pathogens using conventional or quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and haematological evaluation. Of the 143 individuals assessed in 2017 and 2018, most individuals (76%; n = 109 of 143) had no overt clinical evidence of disease and, when observed, clinical findings were mild. In both years, we detected two known tortoise pathogens, Mycoplasma agassizii and Mycoplasma testudineum, at a prevalence of 10.2-13.9% and 0.0-0.8%, respectively. Additionally, we found emydid Mycoplasma, a bacterium commonly found in box turtles (Terrapene spp.), in a single tortoise that showed no clinical evidence of infection. The presence of nasal discharge was an important, but imperfect, predictor of Mycoplasma spp. infection in translocated tortoises. Hemogram data were comparable with wild populations. Our study is the first comprehensive effort to assess pathogen prevalence and hemogram data of waif gopher tortoises following translocation. Although caution is warranted and pathogen screening necessary, waif tortoises may be an important resource for establishing or augmenting isolated populations when potential health risks can be managed.

Keywords: Gopherus; captivity; mycoplasma; stress; translocation; upper respiratory tract disease.

Published by Oxford University Press 2022.