The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in collaboration with the Department of Fisheries Conservation of the Fisheries Administration at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, have recently released a 12.60 kg female Royal Turtle into the wild after nearly 4 weeks of health care at WCS-FiA head starting facility in Koh Kong province.

According to the WCS, the turtle was accidentally caught on a hook of a local fisherman in Koh Kong’s Chi Phat river, and confiscated by Wildlife Alliance (WA) rangers stationed along Chi Phat river immediately after the team received a call from their local network.

The data obtained through the microchip implanted on her back leg, the female had been released into the wild in November 2021. She was weighing 11.6 kg at the time, and she travelled over 100 kilometres to the Southwest across coastal area from the releasing enclosure in Sre Ambel river, it pointed out.

Without the collaboration with WA and funding received from the European Union, this Critically Endangered and National Reptile of Cambodia might have ended in trade, WCS added.

WA is a collaborating partner of WCS, subcontracted to combat illegal turtle trafficking across Cambodia under the European Union Partners against Wildlife Crime Project.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press