News
Tortoise hauled from ocean shelters at zoo
View(s):By Kasun Warakaptiya
An Aldabra tortoise has found its forever home at the Dehiwala Zoo three months after being dumped in the ocean by suspected wildlife smugglers.
The Director General of the National Zoological Gardens, Dr. Chandana Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times that the Department of Wildlife Conservation handed over the tortoise to the zoo this week.
Getting to know its new found home and companions at the zoo : The Aldabra tortoise
Dr. Rajapaksa said that the reptile was in good health, but it was not yet decided if it would be put on public display.
“We have decided to observe the tortoise for a couple of days in the reptilium even though it was quarantined for nearly three months at the Aththidiya wildlife rehabilitation centre,” he said.
The veterinary surgeon in charge of the reptilium at the Dehiwala Zoo, Dr Dinuka Sonnadara said that the tortoise would be about 50 to 60 years old.
She said that the reptile is in good health and would be on display soon.
Getting to know its new found home and companions at the zoo : The Aldabra tortoise
The Sunday Times learned that the tortoise given to the zoo was one of three large ones found stranded in the sea 15 kilometres westwards off Pitipana, Negombo on April 29.
According to information, two were brought on to land by fishermen, and the third tortoise was left stranded in a reef area as it was too big to be hauled onto a fishing vessel.
The navy was informed of the third tortoise, but by then it was not to be seen.
Founder of the Customs biodiversity unit as well as its former director Samantha Gunasekara told the Sunday Times that he suspects that there is more to the incident than the abandoning of three tortoises, near a reef area in Pitipana, Negombo He suggested there was an attempt to smuggle the tortoises by sea and then dump on a reef so that another party would collect them.
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