New Taiwan conservation centre to give threatened turtles a fresh chance at survival

Two years ago, Li Chia-wei received a call from Taiwan's Forestry Bureau, asking if he would take care of about 200 endangered indigenous turtles they had saved from smugglers.

Li is head of the Dr Cecilia Koo Botanic Conservation Centre, a privately funded facility in southern Taiwan that preserves rare plant species. Thinking the arrangement would only be temporary, he agreed to the request. They had plenty of space at the centre, after all, and the turtles were small. Then the creatures began laying eggs.

Soon, 200 turtles became 400, and before long, the Forestry Bureau was on the phone about another batch fleeing the soup pots of China, where most were headed when they were rescued.

Li was not prepared for this. But rather than send them back, he began to investigate the possibility of setting up a new conservation facility specifically for turtles, as the threat from poaching and lost habitat had several native species struggling to survive.

Taiwan has five indigenous turtle species and at least 15 others that have been transplanted from elsewhere.

Among the native species, the Chinese stripe-necked, Chinese three-keeled pond and Chinese softshell turtles are rare, but their populations are stable.