Greetings from the Northlands USA

[John Levell]

John Levell

October 26, 2000 at 12:52 pm #13711

Howdy All, While many of you may already know me from my long association with Zoo Book Sales/Serpent’s Tale Natural History Books, my attendance at various herpetological symposia and conferences, or my participation in other chelonian e-mail groups, I wanted to take a brief moment to compose a note of personal introduction. Unfortunately, those of you who belong to more than one turtle and/or tortoise e-mail lists may see this multiple times in the next day or so, as I’ve recently subscribed to a large number of these groups and will post this note to all. I do wish to sincerely apologize, however, for this possible repetition. In any case, my name is John P. Levell and I currently live in Lanesboro, Minnesota (USA), which is a small community of about 850 people located in the extreme southeastern corner of the state (about 50 miles due west of LaCrosse, Wisconsin). My interest in turtles is apparently “genetic,” as it is impossible for me to remember any time during my 44 years on this planet when I wasn’t totally fascinated with the “shelled-ones.” This interest extends to all species (including those long extinct) and spans most aspects of “cheloniology” including turtle evolution, biology, conservation, and captive care, a fact which is clearly evident in my current rather extensive “library” of turtle reference material (over 500 books, papers and magazines). It may also be important to note that while I am no longer associated with Zoo Book Sales in any way, shape or form, I will still be in the natural history book selling business at least part time. As my primary interest will always be chelonians, as is the case with most of my friends and colleagues, I will focus mainly on turtle and tortoise books particularly those that are of high quality, major importance as references, and/or are somewhat hard to find. While I plan on letting everyone know about any special deals as well as what titles are available, if you have an interest in anything along these lines let me know and we’ll see what we can do. Although I have participated in a fair number of turtle field research projects (this year a study of Blanding’s Turtle sponsored by the Nature Conservancy & MN DNR), most of you will probably be most interested in the species that I currently maintain in captivity so I’ll include a hopefully relatively complete list below. While I myself primarily lean toward a variety of semi-aquatic species, my wife Connie prefers tortoises (o.k. so I like those too) and we keep a fair number of those as well. As is probably normal for many of you, a large percentage of these animals have come to us via adoptions, etc., and these include several animals we would love to see matched up (either here or elsewhere) with mates. Also included among these turtles are a number of local species, which are exhibited at our small natural history “museum” (the Living Museum of Natural History). Anyway, both Connie and I look forward to a long relationship and many informative discussions with this group. Be talking to you all soon – JPL Turtle and Tortoise Species Currently in Our Collection 1 – 0.0.4 Wood Turtles, Clemmys insculpta 2 – 0.0.1 Spotted Turtles, Clemmys guttata 3 – 1.1.1 Japanese Wood Turtles, Mauremys japonica 4 – 1.1.0 European Pond Turtles, Emys orbicularis 5 – 1.1.0 Striped-necked Leaf Turtles, Cyclemys tcheponensis 6 – 0.1.0 Leaf Turtles, Cyclemys dentata 7 – 0.0.2 Central American Wood Turtles, Rhinoclemys pulcherimma incisa 8 – 1.0.0 Malaysian Snail Eater, Malayemys subtrijuga 9 – 0.0.3 Common Snappers, Chelydra serpentina (including a two-headed hatchling) 10 – 0.0.2 Alligator Snappers, Macroclemys temminckii 11 – 0.0.2 Razorback Musk, Sternotherus carinatus 12 – 0.1.0 Common Musk, S. odoratus 13 – 0.0.2 Loggerhead Musk, S. minor minor 14 – 1.1.0 Red-cheeked Mud, Kinosternon scorpioides 15 – 0.1.0 Yellow Mud, K. flavescens 16- 0.0.1 Geoffroy’s Sideneck, Phrynops geoffroanus 17 – 0.0.1 Florida Box Turtle, Terrapene carolina bauri 18 – 1.1.0 Gulf Coast Box Turtle, T.c. major 19 – 0.2.0 Three-toed Box Turtle, T.c. triunguis 20 – 0.0.1 Western Painted, Chrysemys picta 21 – 0.0.1 False Map, Graptemys pseudogeographica 22 – 1.0.0 Ouachita Map, G. ouachitensis 23 – 0.0.1 Spiny Softshell, Apalone spinifera 24 – 1.0.0 Steppe Tortoise, Testudo horsfieldi 25 – 1.0.0 Spurred Tortoise, Geochelone sulcata 26 – 1.2.0 Redfoot Tortoise, G. carbonaria 27 – 1.0.0 Leopard Tortoise, G. pardalis 28 – 0.0.1 Bell’s Hingeback, Kinixys belliana 29 – 0.0.3 Pancake Tortoise, Malacochersus tornieri

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