89 turtles of 8 species arrived at Amsterdam airport on September 16, after having been rescued from a confiscation of an illegal shipment in Hong Kong. TSA Europe spearheaded efforts to place the turtles within their conservation network that includes European Association of Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) Zoos and European Studbook Foundation (ESF) private collections throughout Europe. The shipment included 73 radiated tortoises, two spider tortoises, five Burmese star tortoises, one Indian star tortoise, five yellow-margined box turtles, one Japanese pond turtle, one Pancake tortoise and one yellow pond turtle.

All of the animals arrived in good health and some were transferred immediately to their final destinations at various locations within the ESF accompanied by a loan contract. The radiated tortoises were temporarily homed at the Rotterdam Zoo for quarantine, as CITES documents had to be issued before they could be moved to other facilities. Eventually, they were sent to following European zoos: the Plock, Wroclaw and Opole Zoos (Poland), Santa Inacio (Portugal), A Cupulatta (France), Antwerp Zoo (Belgium), Paignton Zoo (England) and Copenhagen Zoo and Terrariet Vissenbjerg (Denmark).

Assisting with this rescue operation allowed for a large number of turtles to be secured for captive breeding programs, boosting safety net populations for these rare species. Shipping costs for operations such as this place a severe burden on the budget of TSA Europe. To donate funds to offset some of these costs, please click here.

Over the past few years in Hong Kong, large numbers of illegally imported and/or traded turtles have been confiscated. On one hand, these confiscations are a good sign of effective law enforcement, but on the other hand it indicates that the mass illegal trade in Asia is on-going. The CITES Hong Kong authorities, in close contact with the Kadoorie Farm Botanic Gardens (KFBG), has offered these confiscated turtles to the TSA for re-homing within TSA assurance colonies and breeding programs.
 
TSA Europe has played a vital role in re-homing significant numbers of turtles within the European zoos organized within the European Association for Zoos and Aquariums (EAZA) and the privately managed European Studbook Foundation (ESF). The year 2010 was a particularly busy year for re-homing confiscated shipments.

One of the biggest undertakings the TSA is facing in the coming weeks is one that we couldn't have planned for - a major confiscation of smuggled turtles and tortoises in Hong Kong. Our friends at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) in Hong Kong contacted us in February seeking our assistance. The government had seized approximately 1,300 turtles, including over 150 endangered Asian Temple Turtles (Heosemys/Hieremys annandalii) and almost 200 critically endangered Madagascan Radiated Tortoises (Astrochelys radiata), and did not have the resources to house or care for the animals.

In recent years, the interest among European zoos and privates regarding breeding Asian turtles, with an emphasis on species of the genus Cuora, has been increasing (see also the TSA Newsletter 2008). This is due to the conservation status of a number of species (classified into the highest IUCN threat categories) and thus also the difficulty or impossibility of obtaining specimens.

The goal of Project EHAP is to conduct research on optimal breeding and husbandry conditions as a contribution to the conservation of the critically endangered Madagascar flat-tailed tortoise (Pyxis planicauda). Husbandry of this species is not well documented or understood, as until recently, this species has rarely been kept outside of Madagascar. This project seeks to develop and document techniques which can be used to successfully keep and breed this species.

The European Union has traditionally been a very important market for the reptile trade. We all think of Germany, of course, but all the other countries have a strong appeal for traders, both legal and illegal. As the EU and National regulations became tighter (a process still going on), the illegal trade in turtles has grown, calling higher attention from several Law Enforcement Agencies throughout Europe. This has resulted in a number of seizures: although a complete picture is difficult to put together, information gathered by the writer point to an average of 2000-3000 specimen per year from 2005 to 2008.

Alessandro Fornetti reported extensively on the confiscated shipments of tortoises that originated in Libya in the 2008 TSA Newsletter. At that time, the legal situation regarding the shipments was uncertain and even after almost three years, almost no progress could be reported. However, the condition of the first 2005 confiscation is stable. The animals were housed at the Rome Zoo Bioparco, were properly cared for and from this group about 35 offspring can be reported. Eventually, during the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009 a constructive communication arose between TSA Europe and the Italian CITES authorities.