The Ministry of Forestry is preserving and maintaining the wild life animals, especially in near extinct species in our country cooperation with the NGOs and other social organizations. The counting and survey of the crocodiles and tortoises will be made by Ministry of Forestry and Wild Life Conservation Society.

MRTV-3 had a chance to interview with Collection Manager of Department of Herpetology William Holmstrom. He said, “My main purpose was to see the Myanmar star tortoise. We will also interest in all the turtle species. Myanmar is important because it has 7 endemic species here to very high number. And it has been exploded by other country for food. Myanmar star tortoises are very rare. The male and female have a short tail and a flat bottom. The male is concave and have a longer tail. When the tortoise gets big and old, the whole shell is smooth. We don’t know how old these get to be. Some tortoises are get over 100 years, may be 200 years old. They eat vegetables, some dead animals from time to time what they find them, they will eat earthworm, snails but I would say probably 95% of the diet is grasses, leaves and fruits.

We will go to spend the time in the field with the students doing survey work, finding tortoises and making counts to see what the population dense.”