Rare, once-royal turtle to be tracked in Cambodia (AP)
January 24, 2012
BANGKOK – One of the world’s most endangered turtles has been released into a Cambodian river with a satellite transmitter attached to its shell to track how it will navigate through commercial fishing grounds and other man-made hazards.
The 75-pound (34-kilogram) southern river terrapin — one of only about 200 adults remaining in the wild — waddled into the Sre Ambel river in southwestern Cambodia this past week to the cheers of local residents and conservationists.
The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society said the female terrapin was given to the group last year instead of being sold to traffickers who have decimated the country’s population of turtles and other species to cater to demand for exotic wildlife in China.
The southern river terrapin, once considered the sole property of Cambodia’s kings, only survives in the wilds of Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, the group said in a statement. The population in the Sre Ambel
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