Hundreds of tiny animals were so happy to scurry back home again ❤️
Soon after some large, flat shipping crates arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport back in January, customs officials discovered something unexpected inside.
The nearly 600 rare pig-nosed turtles were saved from illegal wildlife traffickers just in time — but to get them back where they belong, thousands of miles away, would take months of tremendous effort.
The finding was surprising — but, sadly, not very unusual. This was far from the first time this type of turtle has been plucked from traffickers at the last moment.
Even though the species is considered vulnerable, over 35,000 pig-nosed turtles have been confiscated in Hong Kong and Indonesia (where their natural habitats are) since 2010.
In January alone, at the Hong Kong International Airport, three separate seizures occurred and over 2,000 of these turtles were confiscated from traffickers.
Because people want to use the turtles for myriad reasons — sometimes they are in demand for use in traditional Eastern medicine, others want to eat them as a delicacy and still others want to keep them in captivity as pets — pig-nosed turtle eggs are taken from the wild in Papua New Guinea and then incubated until they hatch, according to International Animal Rescue (IAR), one of the organizations that helps save these animals.
“The hatchlings are sold to traders who can export them to major cities in Java,” IAR wrote in a press release. “A small proportion are sold domestically for the pet trade and the rest are shipped internationally via sea or air to satisfy increasing foreign demand.”
Source: thedodo.com