Editorial Dear Turtle Friends, When the German Chelonia Group held its first specialist workshop in the summer of 2004, the event met with great interest right away. Its principle of both amateur chelonian enthusiasts and representatives of public zoological institutions selecting a specific group of chelonians as a theme and having everybody contribute their experiences with their husbandry and propagation has proven to be a perfect concept. A key factor here is that not only positive observations are communicated and discussed but negative ones as well. In contrast to “normal” workshops or symposia, where there are a few presenters of their experiences or field observations on the one and many listeners on the other side, specialist workshops are based on everybody taking an active part in the exchange of views and ideas and thus contributing to the success of the event. The end product of these fruitful discussions is a focus subject issue of RADIATA that summarizes the extensive communal knowledge. In the past, focus issues of usually at least double the ordinary volume were compiled thus and published (at no extra costs to you) on the Asiatic hinge-backed turtles of the genus Cuora, North American box turtles of the genus Terrapene, African hinge-backed tortoises of the genus Kinixys, and, with the present issue, the South American side-necked turtles. The results of this year’s specialist workshop on Asian tortoises will be presented in a focus issue scheduled for publication in 2009. Abb. 1. Participants of the specialist workshop of 2007 in the REPTILIUM. 2 RADIATA 17 (3), 2008
Editorial Abb. 2. The entrance of the Terrarienzoo. RADIATA 17 (3), 2008 3
