FORT WORTH, Texas, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- A unique international rescue was being organized Wednesday to save nearly 7,500 endangered turtles confiscated by Hong Kong customs.
Destined for the illegal food trade, the four-ton shipment of turtles valued at $3.2 million was headed for China when it was seized Dec. 10. About 90 percent of the turtles are considered critically endangered under criteria established by the World Conservation Union.
Now an international rescue is being organized by the Turtle Survival Alliance, which plans to fly most of the turtles to the United States during the holidays and then distribute them to zoos, universities, and breeders where they can be maintained for eventual recovery.
Rick Hudson, Fort Worth Zoo conservation biologist, and Kurk Buhlmann, of Conservation International, are spearheading the effort as co-chairs of the turtle alliance. They're fighting against time to save the turtles temporarily housed in a Hong Kong botanic garden.
One veterinarian and some assistants are caring for the animals in Hong Kong, Hudson said, and they are stretched thin. On top of that, organizers learned Wednesday the free air cargo service they had organized for Thursday has been postponed until at least Dec. 26.
"The longer we wait the greater risk occurs," he said.
United Airlines has offered to fly the 10 crates of turtles to Miami, donating the cost in an effort to save the turtles, but other costs are a concern for Hudson. The expense of veterinary care and drugs will be high, he said, and the $15,000 in grants they received will cover less than half the final cost.
Once the turtles get to Miami, they will be stabilized and then screened for disease, weighed, measured, identified and marked. The expert team will then determine where each turtle will be distributed among the so-called "assurance colonies," such as zoos.
"We have mobilized an incredible work force that is poised to give up the holidays and go to Florida and work on these turtles," he said.
The turtles, representing a dozen different species, weigh from 2 pounds up to 75 pounds each. Some of the larger species will be left behind for repatriation back into the wild because they cannot be absorbed in the United States, he said.
The number of species added to the world's critically endangered freshwater turtle list has more than doubled in the past five years, primarily because of their use as a food source in Asia and traditional Chinese medicine, the alliance says.
