Steven G. Platt

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Steven George Platt (born January 24, 1961 in Baton Rouge , Louisiana ) is an American herpetologist and conservationist . His research interests are the turtles of Southeast Asia and the crocodiles .

Life

Platt studied from August 1979 at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in forest science and wildlife management in May 1985 . From August 1986 to December 1990 he studied at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond , Louisiana , where he graduated with a Master of Science degree in biology . From August 1991 to August 1996 was followed by a doctoral program at Clemson University in Clemson , South Carolina , where he met the dissertation crocodile The ecology and status Morelet's in Belize for Ph.D. in zoology . For this purpose he conducted field studies on the ecology of the bumpy crocodile ( Crocodylus moreletii ) in Belize between 1992 and 1995 .

From 1996 to 1998 Platt carried out studies on the endangered American crocodile ( Crocodylus acutus ) in Belize on behalf of the Wildlife Conservation Society . From 1998 to 2001 he worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society on projects to protect crocodiles and turtles in various countries in Southeast Asia ( Myanmar , Vietnam , Laos , Cambodia , Thailand ). He returned to the United States in 2001 and began a university career. From 2002 to 2006 he was a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Science at Oglala Lakota College , an indigenous college on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota . From 2006 to 2011, Platt was Assistant Professor and later Associate Professor at Sul Ross State University's Biological Institute in Alpine , Texas . In 2011 he resigned from university to move to Myanmar with his Burmese wife Kalyar (* 1972), whom he met in 1999 and married in 2004.

Platt was involved in various turtle conservation projects in Myanmar, including the reintroduction of the Burmese tortoise ( Geochelone platynota ) into protected areas in the arid zone and the preservation of a residual population of the Burmese roof turtle ( Batagur trivittata ) on the upper reaches of the Chindwin River. 2017 erstbeschrieb he and his colleague Charles R. Bursey the Fadenwurmart Falcaustra tintlwinis that in colon parasitized this turtle. As early as 2000, Platt, Bursey and Thomas R. Rainwater described the nematode species Falcaustra kutcheri from the excrement of the Celebes tortoise ( Leucocephalon yuwonoi ).

In 2001 Platt photographed the first living specimen of the Burmese short-headed softshell turtle ( Chitra vandijki ) on the premises of a turtle dealer north of Mandalay . In 2009, along with his wife, he was part of a team of scientists who managed to rediscover a population of wild specimens of the endangered flat turtle ( Heosemys depressa ) in an elephant reserve in the Arakan-Joma Mountains in Myanmar. Outside Myanmar, Platt works closely with the Cambodia program of the Wildlife Conservation Society on conservation projects for the Southern Batagur tortoise ( Batagur affinis ) and the Siamese crocodile ( Crocodylus siamensis ). In China, he supported the conservationist Lu Shunqing in releasing Chinese alligators ( Alligator sinensis ) into the wild .

Platt is the co-author of numerous articles on crocodiles and turtles that have been published in the Chelonian Conservation and Biology , Journal of Herpetology , Herpetological Review , Herpetological Bulletin , Southwestern Naturalist , Southeastern Naturalist, and the Journal of Wildlife Diseases , among others . In 2014 he was awarded the Castillo Award for Crocodile Conservation by the IUCN / SSC Crocodile Specialist Group.

Platt is a member of several organizations including the American Bamboo Society, the Association of Southwestern Naturalists, the Association of Southeastern Naturalists, the Chicago Herpetological Society, the Eastern Cougar Foundation, the Herpetologists' League , the IUCN / SSC Crocodile Specialist Group, the IUCN / SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, the Louisiana Academy of Sciences, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles , the Texas Ornithological Society, and the Turtle Survival Alliance.

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personal data
SURNAME Platt, Steven G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platt, Steven George (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American herpetologist and conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Baton Rouge , Louisiana