Previous page Next page  TCEP Ranger Training  |  Indotestudo Births  |  Adventures of Lucky Turtle  |  TCEP Expansion Staff News  |  Stolen Turtles Recovered  |  New Wildlife Trade Guide  |  Turtle Trade Journal Cat Tien Yields No Turtles  |  Cuora Listed Under CITES  |  U Minh Reptile & Amphibian Survey Future of Hoan Kem Turtle  |  Acknowledgements Project News One of three elongated tortoises saved from the food markets of China. Local Community Helps Recover Stolen Turtles      In May, the TCEP experienced its third theft of turtles since 1998. However, this particular incident has a happy ending.      Sometime during lunch hour on the 17th of May, three elongated tortoises (Indotestudo elongata) were stolen from a perimeter enclosure, apparently by a local man who was in the area collecting bamboo. Following discovery of the theft that afternoon, the park’s ranger department was notified and requested to provide assistance in attempting to recover the turtles. At the same time, Mr. Dinh Thuy Hai, the chairman of Cuc Phuong Commune (the commune that includes all local villages at the eastern end of the park), was also notified and requested to assist the project in tracking down the thief. While rangers and project staff were meeting and questioning local wildlife traders, Mr. Hai organized local village leaders and initiated an immediate investigation with the assistance of the commune police chief, Mr. Dinh Cong Sinh.      Initial information from local traders indicated that an unknown man from Nga 3 hamlet (Cuc Phuong Commune) had tried to sell the turtles in Nho Quan district town to a district trader. Subsequent inquiries with this particular trader in Nho Quan were unsuccessful in learning any additional information. The trader denied that he sold wildlife and claimed that he had no knowledge of any turtles for sale. By the 18th of May, project staff assumed the worst: that the turtles had made it into the hands of traders and were on their way (again) to China. Trade inquiries extended to mid-level regional traders out near Highway One. A number of turtles were observed, but not the three stolen tortoises.      However, as project and ranger staff had all but given up hope in recovering the stolen tortoises, Mr. Hai and the Cuc Phuong commune police notified the project that they had caught and obtained a confession from the thief, who was offered a lighter penalty if he was willing to cooperate in recovering the turtles. The local man led commune authorities to Nho Quan where all three tortoises were being held at a relative’s house. The man had tried to sell the turtles that day (to the trader that had denied any knowledge of the turtles), but the local trader had been unwilling to buy the turtles at the normal price because he was aware that the tortoises were stolen since being visited by commune officials as well as park rangers and project staff.      The turtles were repatriated with the project that evening, marking a happy ending for three turtles that had twice in their long lives, been sent to China, only to be rescued from the trade. Special thanks and recognition to the commune chairman, Mr. Hai, police chief Sinh, his deputy, and other local residents for their time and effort in helping to recover the turtles.