France to return 150 endangered tortoises to Madagascar

Marseille (AFP) - Some 150 endangered baby tortoises will return to Madagascar eight months after they were found wrapped in sticky tape and hidden in a crate at a Paris airport, the centre that cared for them said Tuesday.

"After several months of intensive care, the team is overjoyed to repatriate these protected animals to Madagascar," said a statement from Tortoise Village in France's southeastern Var region.

The centre took in the tortoises after they were found in the secret compartment of a crate transporting sea cucumbers through Charles de Gaulle airport in December.

The species -- known as "radiated tortoises" -- are found only in Madagascar and prized by collectors for the unique pattern on their shell case.

They can live up to 100 years, but are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) which estimates they could be extinct within 50 years as a result of habitat loss and the international wildlife trade.

Around 20 of the baby reptiles died during the trip to France due to the "particularly unsuitable conditions of transport," customs officials said at the time, adding that they were destined for Laos.

Continued ...

Rare baby tortoises (Radiated tortoises) held at French airport - via Herp Digest

 December30, 2014, SkyNews.Com.Au

French customs officials say they have found 170 critically endangered baby tortoises wrapped in sticky tape and hidden in the secret compartment of a crate transiting Paris' main Charles de Gaulle airport.

The species - known as 'radiated tortoises' - are found only in Madagascar and prized by collectors for the unique pattern on their shell case.

Customs officials said the tortoises were destined for Laos.

Fifteen of the baby reptiles have died since their discovery in the crate carrying sea cucumbers on December 14 due to the 'particularly unsuitable conditions of transport,' customs officials said.

The survivors have been taken to Tortoise Village in France's southeastern Var region.

'We put them in a warm place and cleaned them with disinfectant,' said the centre's director Bernard Devaux.

'They didn't have enough water but they should be rehydrated slowly to avoid a new shock.'

He described the baby tortoises as 'magnificent but very fragile, each one has a different shell pattern'.

Weighing only 20g and measuring up to four centimetres the tortoises are too small to face a second international flight and will likely spend a few years in France before being returned to Madagascar.

The tortoises can live up to 100 years.

'They are considered the most beautiful tortoises on the planet. You see them sold for $US10,000 ($A10,820) in New York or Tokyo,' said Devaux.

'They represent too much money. They are beautiful so they are hunted. Maybe it would be better if they were ugly.'

The tortoises are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Rare Malagasy tortoises turn up in luggage seized in Bangkok

December 2013: Royal Thai Customs have seized a bag containing 62 highly threatened Radiated Tortoises Astrochelys radiata and arrested a Malagasy national at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International Airport.

The bag was not picked up from the luggage carousel raising the suspicion of Customs officials who then scanned the bag to check its contents. The tortoises were discovered hidden in the foam-lined suitcase.

Officials managed to locate the suspect, a Malagasy national, who had flown from Antananarivo to Bangkok. He is under arrest and is being investigated under several sections of Thailand's Wild Animals Preservation and Protection Act 1992, Customs Act and the Animal Epidemics Act.

Continued

Trafficking of Critically Endangered Madagascar tortoises raging out of control

Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,000 individual tortoises have been seized from would-be smugglers 

May 2013. Illegal trafficking of two critically endangered tortoise species from Madagascar has reached epidemic proportions, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Turtle Survival Alliance, Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, Turtle Conservancy, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund and other groups who urge authorities to clamp down on wildlife smuggling before some species are collected out of existence. 

According to the groups, more than 1,000 radiated and ploughshare tortoises have been confiscated from smugglers in the first three months of 2013 alone. In late March, 54 ploughshare tortoises made it as far as Thailand before being seized by authorities. A recent report by TRAFFIC states that the radiated tortoise is now the most common tortoise for sale in Bangkok's infamous Chatuchak wildlife market. 

Huge increase in smuggling

The groups say that since the beginning of Madagascar's continuing political crisis in 2009, smuggling has increased by at least ten-fold due to weak governance and rule-of-law. In addition, erosion of cultural protection of the tortoises for short term monetary gain has contributed to their sharp decline. In the past, tortoises were protected by "fady" - a local belief that harming the tortoises is taboo. However, with years of drought and increasing levels of poverty, people from regions outside the tortoise's natural range, who do not practice these types of fady, are capturing and illegally selling tortoises. 

Iconic species

"These tortoises are truly one of Madagascar's most iconic species," said James Deutsch, WCS Executive Director for Africa Programs. "This level of exploitation is unsustainable. Unless immediate action is taken to better protect the wild populations, their extinction is imminent." 

Continued: http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/madagascar-tortoise-traffic.html

Largest ever seizure of Critically Endangered Ploughshare Tortoises made in Thailand

Hundreds of protected tortoises found at Bangkok Airport

March 2013. Just a day after the close a global wildlife trade conference here in Bangkok, authorities at Suvarnabhumi International Airport made two big seizures, discovering hundreds of threatened tortoises and apprehending two smugglers. Among the tortoises seized were some of the rarest in the world.

Authorities arrested a 38-year-old Thai man as he was attempting to collect a bag containing tortoises from Madagascar, from a luggage carousel, at the airport. The bag was registered to a 25-year-old woman who had flown from Madagascar to Bangkok via Nairobi the same day.

54 Ploughshare tortoises and 21 Radiated Tortoises
Royal Thai Customs officers and their counterparts in the CITES management authority found 54 Ploughshare Tortoises and 21 Radiated Tortoises Astrochelys radiata, both of which are assessed as being Critically Endangered.

Critically Endangered
Ploughshare and Radiated Tortoises are endemic to Madagascar, totally protected in the country and are both listed in CITES Appendix I. The wild population of Ploughshare Tortoises, considered among the rarest species in the world, is estimated to be as few as 400 individuals, and is declining fast.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bangkok-tortoises.html

569 Radiated Tortoises seized at Airport in Madagascar - via Herp Digest

by Heather Lowe, 10/12/12 Turtle Survival Alliance

On October 10, two Asian passengers on an Air Madagascar flight to Bangkok, Thailand and Guangzhou, China were arrested at Ivato International Airport after attempting to smuggle four suitcases full of 569 Critically Endangered Radiated Tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) through customs.  This is a record number seizure for this airport in the capital city of Antananarivo. After the confiscation, the Malagasy Forestry Authority mandated the Turtle Survival Alliance to look after the baby tortoises. Of the group, three were already dead and ten are currently in very poor condition.

This is the second major tortoise confiscation in the past two weeks and is already overwhelming our resources to care for them properly. This underscores the critical need for another regional rescue center in the south where tortoises can be moved immediately following seizure for quarantine, treatment and long-term care prior to their release back into protected areas.

Herilala Randriamahazo (TSA Malagasy Tortoise Conservation Coordinator) has been scrambling ever since the confiscation to care for the tortoises, along with the help of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership (MBP) staff. The tortoises are currently being housed at the offices shared by the TSA and the MBP in Antananarivo, but there are not sufficient facilities available there to house the massive influx of animals. Right now, many are making their home on the terrace out of necessity! They will be kept there until the investigation against the poachers is complete and the TSA is given permission to move forward with reintroduction plans that will send the tortoises back to the spiny forests in the south.

In the meantime, plans are underway to construct additional pens on site and to transform a part of the existing garden to better manage the tortoises. Part-time keepers will have to be brought on board to assist with the massive job of caring with such a large group until their eventual release. If you are interested in making a donation toward these efforts (anything will help!) please contact Heather Lowe at the Turtle Survival Alliance for more details.