Last Monday, a Southern Vietnamese Box Turtle (Cuora bourreti), an endemic species of central Vietnam and classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List and listed in Appendix II of Cites, was successfully rescued and transferred to the Asian Turtle Program before being received by the Turtle Conservation Center in Cuc Phuong National Park.
Two weeks previously, a volunteer informed ENV via our Facebook fanpage about the wild turtle, from Quang Ngai province, being advertised online. In order to catch the seller red handed, we quickly set up a sting operation: we made contact with the seller, pretending that we intended to buy the animal in order to set up a meeting, whilst also reporting the details to the local environmental police in Quang Ngai city, enabling them to catch the individual in the act.
The support from ENV volunteers and the quick action of both ENV’s Wildlife Crime Unit and the authorities has once again resulted in another success for conservation and another wild animal has been saved.
Case ref no: 6368
Photo for illustration only
{jcomments on}