Scientists See Rare Turtle for First Time in the Wild

By LiveScience Staff
posted: 04 September 2009 04:04 pm ET




Known only by museum specimens and a few captive individuals, one of the world’s rarest turtle species – the Arakan forest turtle – has been observed for the first time in the wild.

A Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) team discovered five of the critically endangered turtles in a wildlife sanctuary in Myanmar (Burma) in Southeast Asia. The sanctuary, originally established to protect elephants, contains thick stands of impenetrable bamboo forests and is rarely visited by people according to the report.

The adult turtles measure less than a foot in length; its shell is light brown with some black mottling. The species was believed extinct until 1994, when conservationists found a few specimens in a food market in China. Before then, the last know record of the species was of a single animal collected by a British Army officer in 1908. Many Asian turtle species have been driven to near extinction due to their demand as food.

The WCS team also found yellow tortoises and Asian leaf turtles in the sanctuary – two other species threatened by the illegal wildlife trade.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/090904-arakan-turtle.html

Still though, stupid humans will destroy this planet and themselves in the process - duh.

Planet will survive.

Humans - not so much.

Some scientist.

unless it just walked into captivity.

Maybe more ecologists need to do their field studies in chinese markets.

(... because if we catch you doing it, we'll cut your balls off ...)
:grr: