Dr Chen Pelf Nyok works cheerfully to do
her part in saving turtle species from extinction
he Terrapin Guardian
CONSERVATION
Text and Photo Law Yao-Hua
dlife
It is a sunny June morning in the village
of Pasir Gajah on the east coast of
Peninsular Malaysia. here, on a porch
by the community hall, turtle researcher
and conservationist Dr Chen Pelf Nyok
sits cross-legged on a woven mat. Around
her are a digital scale, calipers and a pair
of wire-cuters – tools that she is using to
weigh, measure and mark 34 newly-hatched
southern river terrapins.
ABOVE Cradling
baby southern
river terrapinshe terrapins were collected as eggs three
months earlier from the banks of the nearby
Kemaman River. Incubated in a hatchery,
the grey and creamy yellow terrapins – each
no bigger than Chen’s palm – have just dug
themselves out of their sand nests.
“hey look so tired now,” says Chen,
smiling as she takes the babies to a large
water tank in the terrapin nursery. “But once
they enter the water, they will zip away.”