Friday, 2 May 2008

Conservationists rescue almost 300 Cambodian reptiles from wildlife smugglers

(photo: WN / Renzelle Mae Abasolo)

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Hundreds of reptiles including some endangered species were rescued from traffickers and released into their natural habitat in Cambodia, a conservation group said Thursday.

Twelve endangered yellow-headed temple turtles were among the nearly 300 reptiles - weighing a total of 420 kilograms - that authorities confiscated this week in Cambodia's northwestern Battambang province, the Washington, D.C.-based Wildlife Alliance said in a statement.

The group said the animals were freed Wednesday following their rescue Monday, when Wildlife Alliance members were with Cambodian forestry officials and police who stopped a pickup truck transporting the cargo on its way to Vietnam.

Co-operation between the Wildlife Alliance and various government conservation agencies is "making significant impacts on a multimillion dollar illegal wildlife trade in Cambodia as various trade routes and wildlife stockpile locations have been exposed," the statement said.

"We fairly often have quite large amounts of reptiles rescued from wildlife traders, but this was bigger," said Nick Marx, the group's animal husbandry specialist.

Two dozen reticulated and Burmese pythons were among the cargo, which was mostly made up of various turtle species including the yellow-headed temple turtles, which have cultural significance in Cambodian folklore and legends, the statement said.

"In stone carvings on the walls of Angkorian temples, they are depicted as divine creatures of royalty; yet their numbers steadily decrease each year due to habitat loss and the illegal wildlife trade," the Wildlife Alliance said.

An army lieutenant has been held for questioning about the smuggling, the statement said. But it did not say if the man, identified as Hong Try, 32, was the driver of the truck - which bore military license plates - or what charge, if any, he might face.

The group said the animals had been illegally collected in three provinces in the country's northwest, and then moved to a large-scale holding facility in Thailand before eventually being shipped back through Cambodia on their way to Vietnam.

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