78 Rare Tortoises Stolen From Breeding Center

Ploughshare tortoise

By: Jani Actman
78 Rare Tortoises Stolen From Breeding Center - Great news from Thailand. It’s a mystery: 78 rare tortoises disappeared from a breeding center in Thailand, and it’s an open question as to where they went.

It was supposed to be a happy ending for the creatures, worth a total of $85,000 (three million baht). Authorities seized them from illegal wildlife traders and brought them to Bang Phra Water Bird Breeding Station, a state run facility in eastern Thailand’s Chon Buri province.

But the creatures and their cages vanished on May 23. On Wednesday, the Bangkok Post reported, authorities removed Songklod Phuthong, the head of the facility, and replaced him with a senior forest official named Phadet Laithong. Thailand’s National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department has launched an investigation into the theft.

"These tortoises could not just disappear without anyone knowing,” Thanya Netithammakun, director-general of the agency, told the Bangkok Post. "The public needs to know what happened."

Six of the tortoises were ploughshares, named for the plough-like shape of their lower shells, and 72 were radiated, a name that describes the star pattern on their shells. Prized for their beauty, traders sell both species as pets on the black market, despite an international treaty banning their trade.

Ploughshares are considered the rarest tortoise species, with only 500 known to be holding on in the forests of northwestern Madagascar. Things have gotten so bad that last year conservationists engraved some of the tortoises’ shells with a serial number and the initials “MG” (for Madagascar) to ward off poachers.

Radiated tortoises, which are also endemic to Madagascar, aren’t faring much better. They’re critically endangered, mainly from habitat loss but also from the pet and meat trades.

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Credit: NGC

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