Draft:Peter Praschag

• Comment: In preparing this draft, I disclose that AI assistance was used as follows: I used ChatGPT to help format my draft in Wikipedia markup, including internal links, citations and references. AnitaPfeffinger (talk) 17:40, 3 October 2026 (UTC)

Peter Praschag with a northern river terrapin (Batagur baska)

Peter Praschag is an Austrian zoologist and conservationist specialising in threatened freshwater turtles and tortoises. His work combines taxonomy and evolutionary research with field conservation, conservation breeding and reintroduction programmes, integrating in-situ and ex-situ conservation measures. He is the founder of Turtle Island, an Austrian conservation and research organisation dedicated to their conservation.

Praschag's scientific work focuses on turtle systematics, phylogeography, conservation genetics and acoustic communication. In 2016, his research and conservation work was featured in the ORF Universum documentary Turtle Hero.

Education and research

Praschag studied biology and zoology at the University of Graz and completed his doctoral dissertation in 2003, examining the identity of the black softshell turtle, then known as Aspideretes nigricans.

His research has focused on the taxonomy, phylogeography, evolutionary relationships and conservation of freshwater turtles and tortoises. In 2007, he and his co-authors published a study in Zoologica Scripta that provided genetic evidence for wild-living populations of the black softshell turtle outside the temple population in Bangladesh and examined its relationship to other South Asian softshell turtles. The study identified genetically matching turtles in Assam, India, and proposed an expanded genus Nilssonia, including the species now known as Nilssonia nigricans.

Praschag has also worked on the systematics of Asian river turtles. A 2007 study led by Praschag used mitochondrial DNA to investigate relationships among several endangered South and Southeast Asian freshwater turtles. His subsequent research included the description of a new subspecies of Batagur affinis in 2009.

In 2006, Praschag and co-authors investigated the systematic position of the Cochin forest cane turtle, originally described as Geoemyda silvatica. Based on molecular and morphological evidence, they concluded that the species represented a distinct evolutionary lineage. Praschag and his co-authors described a new monotypic genus for the species, naming it Vijayachelys. In 2024, ORF reported on the successful breeding of Vijayachelys silvatica at Turtle Island and identified Praschag as the scientific namesake of the genus.

His taxonomic research has continued in more recent years. In 2022, Praschag and Richard Gemel described Amyda ornata jongli, a new subspecies of the Asiatic softshell turtle from the northern part of the species' distribution range.

One of the more recent areas of research has concerned acoustic communication in turtles. Praschag was a co-author of a 2022 study on acoustic communication published in Nature Communications. Among other sounds, the research included recordings of turtle species at Turtle Island. Based on a phylogenetic analysis encompassing approximately 1,800 species, the authors proposed that acoustic communication in choanate vertebrates has a common evolutionary origin dating back approximately 407 million years.

Earlier research into turtle communication at Turtle Island was reported by ORF Science in 2016, including Praschag's observations of acoustic communication and its potential relevance to conservation breeding.

Conservation work and Turtle Island

Praschag's conservation work combines scientific research and conservation breeding with efforts to establish, reinforce or re-establish populations in their native habitats. His projects have involved threatened freshwater turtle and tortoise species from different regions of the world.

In 2013, he founded Turtle Island in Graz, Austria, as a conservation and research organisation specialising in threatened turtles and tortoises. According to the organisation, as of September 2026, Turtle Island maintains more than 3,000 turtles and tortoises representing over 300 taxa and has recorded twelve world-first breeding successes. The scale and development of the facility and Praschag's conservation work have also been covered by Austrian media.

A major focus of Praschag's conservation work has been the critically endangered northern river terrapin (Batagur baska). Praschag initiated conservation work for the species in Bangladesh and South India, where remaining animals were sought out and incorporated into a conservation-breeding programme. He subsequently developed the programme together with conservation partners in Bangladesh and Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna.

In 2010, Peter Praschag and his father, Reiner Praschag, transferred four northern river terrapins, including two gravid females, to Schönbrunn Zoo as part of the conservation programme. Two hatchlings subsequently became the world's first captive-bred offspring of the species. The conservation programme has since expanded considerably in Bangladesh.

Praschag has also been involved in conservation and research programmes for other highly threatened turtle species. One of these concerns the critically endangered Vallarta mud turtle (Kinosternon vogti), a species endemic to the Bahía de Banderas region of western Mexico. Turtle Island maintains an assurance population of the species in Austria and works with the Centro Universitario de la Costa of the University of Guadalajara in Mexico on ex-situ and in-situ conservation measures. In 2023, the first successful captive reproduction of K. vogti occurred at Turtle Island in Austria.

As part of the programme, a dedicated conservation breeding and research centre for the species has been established in Puerto Vallarta. The programme combines conservation breeding, research and habitat protection with preparations for future reinforcement or reintroduction once suitable habitat can be secured.

His conservation activities also include reintroduction programmes. In 2026, 27 eastern Hermann's tortoises (Testudo hermanni boettgeri) bred through a Turtle Island conservation programme were released into protected habitat on the Mani Peninsula in the Peloponnese, Greece.

Professional activities

Praschag is a member of the Field Conservation Committee and a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.

He is also a court-certified expert in Austria in fields including species conservation, zoology, amphibians and reptiles, animal husbandry and animal welfare.

Media coverage

For many years, Praschag's research and conservation work has been the subject of television documentaries, science reporting and print media.

In 2016, he was the subject of Turtle Hero, a natural history documentary produced for the ORF series Universum. Directed by Jeremy Hogarth, the documentary follows Praschag's conservation work from Graz to field projects in Asia and South America.

ORF Science has reported on Praschag's scientific and conservation work, including research into acoustic communication among turtles.

In 2018, the Alumni Community of the University of Graz featured Praschag in the video portrait Alumni im Portrait Peter Praschag.

In 2023, the Austrian magazine Fazit published an extensive profile of Praschag covering his fascination with turtles since childhood, his scientific career, field research and conservation activities, as well as the development of Turtle Island.

In 2025, the German television programme Galileo featured Praschag and Turtle Island in a report titled 3000 gepanzerte Mitbewohner: Dieser Mann rettet tausende Schildkröten!. In the same year, ORF Steiermark reported on Praschag's work with the endangered Arakan forest turtle and the development of Turtle Island's conservation collection.

Selected publications

• López-González, N. E.; Blanck, T.; Cupul-Magaña, F. G.; Nolasco-Luna, J. R.; Praschag, P.; López-Luna, M. A.; Butterfield, T. G.; Barrios-Quiroz, G.; Diruzzo, S. (2025). "Kinosternon vogti López-Luna, Cupul-Magaña, Escobedo-Galván, González-Hernández, Rangel-Mendoza, Ramírez-Ramírez, and Cazares-Hernández 2018 – Vallarta Mud Turtle, Casquito de Vallarta". Conservation Biology of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises. Chelonian Research Monographs. 5 (19): 132.1–132.15. doi:10.3854/crm.5.132.vogti.v1.2025.
• Praschag, P.; Gemel, R. (2022). "A new subspecies of the Asiatic softshell turtle Amyda ornata (Gray, 1861) from its northern distribution range". Herpetozoa. 35: 81–93. doi:10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e86055.
• Jorgewich-Cohen, G.; Townsend, S. W.; Padovese, L. R.; Klein, N.; Praschag, P.; et al. (2022). "Common evolutionary origin of acoustic communication in choanate vertebrates". Nature Communications. 13: 6089. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33741-8.
• Weissenbacher, A.; Preininger, D.; Ghosh, R.; Morshed, A. G. J.; Praschag, P. (2015). "Conservation breeding of the Northern river terrapin (Batagur baska) at the Vienna Zoo, Austria, and in Bangladesh". International Zoo Yearbook. 49: 31–41. doi:10.1111/izy.12070.
• Praschag, P.; Holloway, R.; Georges, A.; Päckert, M.; Hundsdörfer, A. K.; Fritz, U. (2009). "A new subspecies of Batagur affinis (Cantor, 1847), one of the world's most critically endangered chelonians (Testudines: Geoemydidae)". Zootaxa. 2233 (1): 57–68. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.2233.1.3.
• Praschag, P.; Hundsdörfer, A. K.; Fritz, U. (2007). "Phylogeny and taxonomy of endangered South and South-east Asian freshwater turtles elucidated by mtDNA sequence variation (Testudines: Geoemydidae: Batagur, Callagur, Hardella, Kachuga, Pangshura)". Zoologica Scripta. 36 (5): 429–442. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2007.00293.x.
• Praschag, P.; Hundsdörfer, A. K.; Reza, A. H. M. A.; Fritz, U. (2007). "Genetic evidence for wild-living Aspideretes nigricans and a molecular phylogeny of South Asian softshell turtles (Reptilia: Trionychidae: Aspideretes, Nilssonia)". Zoologica Scripta. 36 (4): 301–310. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2007.00282.x.
• Praschag, P.; Schmidt, C.; Fritzsch, G.; Müller, A.; Gemel, R.; Fritz, U. (2006). "Geoemyda silvatica, an enigmatic turtle of the Geoemydidae (Reptilia: Testudines), represents a distinct genus". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. 6 (2): 151–162. doi:10.1016/j.ode.2005.10.001.

References

Category:Austrian zoologists Category:Austrian conservationists Category:Herpetologists Category:University of Graz alumni Category:Living people