Chelonian Conservation and Biology as the World's Turtle and Tortoise Journal: 22 Years and Counting

Over 22 years has passed since the first issue of Chelonian Conservation and Biology. Volume 1, Number 1 was published in November 1993. This 75-page issue featured an Editorial Prologue by CCB Editors John L. Behler, Peter C.H. Pritchard, and Anders G.J. Rhodin that introduced the “new turtle and tortoise journal”. There were five articles (four on freshwater turtles, one on the African spurred tortoise, Geochelone sulcata). While I suppose it is apropos that a species so common to everyday turtle and tortoise enthusiasts would be in the initial volume, I was nonetheless pleased to see that this article focused on a wild population (from northern central Mali). My eyebrows raised a bit when I noticed that none of these articles, nor any of the four Notes and Field Reports, focused on sea turtles. Yet this is to be expected considering that in that first year’s introduction, Behler et al. stated that “our primary aim is to serve as the official publication outlet of the IUCN/SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group”. To their credit, John, Peter, and Anders did mention that future issues would welcome contributions dealing with sea turtles, and indeed the first article focusing on sea turtles was published in January 1995’s Volume 1, Number 3; it was entitled “Growth of Head-Started Kemp’s Ridley Turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) Following Release”, by Charles Caillout, Jr. and colleagues. The ensuing years have seen a more balanced treatment of freshwater turtles, tortoises, and sea turtles in the pages of CCB; in the present issue—Volume 14, Number 1—we present 5 articles on sea turtles and 10 articles on freshwater turtles and tortoises. However, interestingly, of this latter group, there are few articles that focus exclusively on tortoises. This has been an emerging trend over the last several years, that “tortoise papers” are less frequently submitted for publication. Indeed, tortoise species richness is well exceeded by their freshwater counterparts, and perhaps the fewer tortoise papers being submitted these years results from this lower species richness. Regardless, I look forward to hearing more from our colleagues studying tortoises, and on behalf of our editorial team, I assure you that we always strive to present a taxonomically balanced collection of articles in each and every issue.

Over the last several issues of Chelonian Conservation and Biology, we have been promoting “Featured Articles”. These articles have generally been published as the first article in the issue and have often been supported by having the cover art for the volume be associated with the article, usually one of the Featured Article authors’ own favorite field pictures. Featured Articles have also had a press release developed by our friends at Allen Press in an effort to spread the word about the newest, most interesting and exciting turtle and tortoise research to a broad audience. Featured Articles have also been posted on our CCB Web site (www.chelonianjournals.org) with open access, free to download, for an extended period of time. The most recent Featured Article is by the famous Doc Ehrhart and colleagues and entitled “Long-Term Trends in Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) Nesting and Reproductive Success at an Important Western Atlantic Rookery”. Its intriguing press release caught the World’s attention as “Troubling tides for sea turtles? A 31-year study of loggerhead nesting signals the alarm on beach erosion and climate change”, and can be found on our Web site along with the PDF of the article. I’ve received many positive comments about CCB’s Featured Articles, and I look forward to promoting them each essue for years to come.

For this Volume 14, I’m pleased to present Issue 1’s Featured Article, authored by Russell Mittermeier, Peter Paul van Dijk, Anders Rhodin, and Stephen Nash entitled “Turtle Hotspots: An Analysis of the Occurrence of Tortoises and Freshwater Turtles in Biodiversity Hotspots, High-Biodiversity Wilderness Areas, and Turtle Priority Areas”. These authors should be familiar names to any seasoned CCB reader, and with Anders as our journal’s Founding Father, and Russ serving as a Consulting Editor since Day 1 of this journal, I’m extremely pleased to see such exciting, albeit sobering, research grace the pages of CCB. In this Featured Article, the team analyzed the taxon richness and endemism of tortoises and freshwater turtles in the world’s premier biodiversity conservation priority areas and countries with greatest turtle richness. Ideally, pinpointing these conservation priority areas and countries should assist conservation of turtles worldwide by focusing on areas where the greatest number of species and taxa can be secured. And by making this a Featured Article, I hope that this article reaches the maximum possible number of people.

To close this Editorial Introduction, I’d like to acknowledge our entire editorial team at CCB, with special thanks to Anders Rhodin, our Founding Editor, for continuing to inspire me to make our Journal the best it can be. I’d also like to thank all the referees who continue to ensure that the articles we publish are of the best possible caliber. And finally, I can’t say enough good things about our friends at Allen Press, especially Eleanor Lohmann, Lindsey Givens, and the countless anonymous copy editors, for always being supportive and patient as we push out each new issue of Chelonian Conservation and Biology.