Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Tortoise Conservation from Kenya's Crevices
Turtle Survival Alliance CEO Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux recounts discovering a critically endangered Pancake Tortoise population in northern Kenya.
Why we picked this
A field biologist crawling into Kenyan rock crevices to find one of the world's least-studied tortoises — this is conservation science at its most hands-and-knees literal.
Marc Dupuis-Desormeaux, CEO of the Turtle Survival Alliance, presents fieldwork from northern Kenya where his team discovered a previously unknown population of Pancake Tortoises — a critically endangered species that shelters in the narrow crevices of rocky outcrops. The talk covers the biology, the terrain, and the particular challenges of conserving an animal most people have never heard of.
What makes this story compelling beyond herpetology is the intersection of community engagement, habitat fragmentation, and the sheer difficulty of surveying an animal that lives in places humans can barely reach. Dupuis-Desormeaux brings both the scientific rigor and the field stories that make Explorers Club talks worth the trip.
Tickets required. The Explorers Club, New York.