RESEARCH ARTICLE

STAR TORTOISES (Geochelone elegans): WORLD’S NUMBER ONE TORTOISE IN THE ILLEGAL PET TRADE

Abstract

The star tortoise (Geochelone elegans) is mainly a herbivorous reptile. Its natural habitat is in the dry zone lowlands approximately up to 300 m above mean sea level in Sri Lanka. Its dome-shaped hard shell with characteristic yellowish cream and black streaked markings on the carapace and plastron makes it an attractive animal. Its temperament and disposition makes these easy to keep in captivity making it a popular pet internationally. Additionally, the Sri Lanka star tortoise is considered to be the most beautiful star tortoise in the region, and thus the demand for it in the pet trade. There is evidence that it has been illegally collected and smuggled out the country for the pet trade. Studies have indicated of a well organized smuggling mafia in India where nearly 200,000 star tortoises are collected annually in India and smuggled to pet traders' world over, of this, a fair number are smuggled into Sri Lanka from South India in Fishing Trawlers, and then collected by the local counterparts. Sri Lanka is used as one center in the smuggling triangle where it is re-smuggled to Malaysia and other South East Asian countries.

Keywords: Smuggling, Sri Lanka, star tortoise, pet trade, zoological gardens, threats

How to Cite: Anslem de Silva,,Manori Gunawardena,,Priyanthi Wijenayake,,Dammika Malsinghe,,Tharaka Prasad,, (2019). STAR TORTOISES (Geochelone elegans): WORLD’S NUMBER ONE TORTOISE IN THE ILLEGAL PET TRADE.WILDLANKA, 7(2):Pages 051-058

Published On:2019-09-30

Download