Emergency care for several large confiscations of illegally traded and highly threatened tortoise and freshwater turtles

© Asian Turtle Program

The emergency

In 2023 the Turtle Conservation Centre, co-managed by Indo-Myanmar Conservation and Cuc Phuong National Park in Vietnam, received several large confiscations of threatened tortoises and turtles. One of these included over 90 Yellow Pond Turtles. There was an urgent need to provide emergency care, and identify which turtles could be included in conservation breeding programmes.

Results

• Emergency care was provided to the confiscated animals.

• A 190m2 secure quarantine area was constructed to support the emergency rescues, which would also provide holding space for future rescues.

• To verify the identity of the turtles purported to be Yellow Pond Turtles, genetic sampling was conducted on the 13 largest individuals, which confirmed that they were hybrids between Yellow Pond Turtles and Vietnamese Pond Turtles.

• 7 Bourret’s Box Turtles, 2 Elongated Tortoises and 1 Chinese Striped-neck Turtle have fully recovered at the Turtle Conservation Centre and will be released back into the wild when appropriate.

Reports

AT A GLANCE

Organisation: Indo Myanmar Conservation

Country: Vietnam

Year project started: 2023

Species: Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle, Yellow Pond Turtle, Bourret's Box Turtle

Supported by: Fondation Segré