Franck Bonin, D.V.M.

Franck is a veterinarian from Lyon, France, who has been involved with turtle conservation since 1987. It was during this year that he met Bernard Devaux with whom he built the turtle village of Gonfaron to conserve the french Testudo hermanni. In 1993 Franck opened his vet clinic in Champagne au Mont d’Or, where he consults hundreds of chelonian patients each year. For 25 years, he’s traveled around the world visiting and studying the places where people work on turtle conservation. He is an author of the encyclopedia Turtles of the World and contributes to SOPTOM’s La Tortue, a magazine which describes conservation programs and analyses endangered turtles. Franck may be the record holder for the one person who has seen the highest number of turtle species in their true biotope. He loves wild turtles and each animal spotted in nature makes him happy as if it was the first time. He is now the leader of the Var project to build a new Turtle Village. This center will open in the first quarter of 2017 in Carnoules en Cœur du Var and will be dedicated to french tortoise conservation.