Turtle Poaching: Global Criminal Enterprise with Local Ties
By Frank Carini / ecoRI News staff
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| Eastern box turtles are a popular species in the illegal world of wildlife poaching. (New England Aquarium) |
Since the local and/or regional future for many of these species — eastern spadefoot toad, northern leopard frog, northern diamondback terrapin, to name just a few — is in doubt, removing them from nature to keep as a pet or to sell is against the law.
It’s illegal
to sell, purchase, or own/possess native species in any context, even if
acquired through a pet store or online, according to Rhode Island law.
Turtles are especially vulnerable, according to Scott Buchanan, who became the state’s first full-time herpetologist in 2018, because some species must reproduce for their entire lives to ensure just one hatchling survives to adulthood.
The Rhode Island Department
of Environmental Management (DEM) staffer said it takes years, sometimes a
decade or more, for turtles to reach reproductive age, if they make it at all.
Buchanan recently told ecoRI News
that “broadly, across taxa” the illegal taking, or poaching, of wildlife is a
“huge issue.”
“Globally, it’s considered one of the driving forces of population declines and even extinctions,” he said.
Wildlife trade experts and
conservation biologists such as Buchanan point to poaching — driven by demand
in Asia, Europe, and the Unified States — as a contributing factor in the
global decline of some freshwater turtles and tortoises.
Tortoises and turtles grow
slowly, mature late, and can, if given the chance, live for decades. This slow
and steady lifestyle served them well for millions of years, but now, in the
face of growing human pressures, it has become a liability.
Of the 360 known turtle and
tortoise species, 52% are threatened, according to the International
Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.
A group of global turtle and
tortoise experts published a 2020 paper that noted
“more than half of the 360 living species [187] and 482 total taxa (species and
subspecies combined) are threatened with extinction. This places chelonians
[turtles, terrapins, and tortoises] among the groups with the highest
extinction risk of any sizeable vertebrate group.”
Turtle populations are “declining
rapidly” because of habitat loss, consumption by humans for food and
traditional medicines, and collection for the international pet trade,
according to the paper’s authors. Many could go extinct this century.
Buchanan’s involvement in dealing
with the impact of poachers is primarily around North American turtles. He
noted turtle diversity is high globally and in the eastern United States — in
the Southeast more than the Northeast, however.
But state and federal law
enforcement officials and wildlife biologists consider the illegal collection
of turtles to be a conservation crisis occurring at an international scale,
according to Buchanan, who is the co-chair of the Collaborative to Combat the Illegal
Trade in Turtles (CCITT), formed in 2018 within Partners
in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.
In the past four years, CCITT, an
organization of mostly state, federal, and tribal biologists, has documented
some 30 major smuggling cases in 15 states. Some involved a few dozen turtles,
and others several thousand.
In Rhode Island, Buchanan said
there are four turtle species of concern: the eastern box turtle; the spotted
turtle; the wood turtle; and the northern diamondback terrapin.
Eastern box (species of
greatest conservation need): This turtle spends most of its time on land rather
than in the water. They favor open woodlands, but can be found in floodplains,
near vernal pools, ponds, streams, marshy meadows, and pastures. They reach
sexual maturity by about 10 years of age. Females nest in June and lay an
average of five eggs in open areas with sandy or loamy soil. Eggs hatch in late
summer.
Spotted (species of greatest
conservation need): These turtles are sensitive to disturbance. They are
usually found in shallow, well-vegetated wetland habitats, such as vernal
pools, marshes, swamps, bogs, and fens. They reach sexual maturity at 7-10
years of age. Females lay an average of four eggs in moist Sphagnum moss, grass
tussocks, hummocks, or loamy soil. Females probably do not lay eggs more than
once a season, and females do not lay eggs every year.
Wood (species of greatest
conservation need): For part of the year they live in streams, slow rivers,
shoreline habitats, and vernal pools, but in the summer they roam widely across
terrestrial landscapes. They reach sexual maturity around 10. During late spring,
one clutch of 4-12 eggs is typically laid in nesting sites consisting of sandy
soil or gravel. Eggs hatch in late summer and the young move to water.
Northern diamondback (state
endangered): Their population has suffered greatly due to poaching and habitat
loss. They are found in estuaries, coves, barrier beaches, tidal flats, and
coastal marshes. They spend the day feeding and basking in the sun and bury
themselves in the mud at night. They reach sexual maturity at about 6. Females
lay a clutch consisting of 4-18 eggs. Some females will lay more than one
clutch in a season and hatching usually occurs in late August. The young spend
the earlier years of life under tidal wrack (seaweed) and are rarely observed.
All four are high-demand species
in the pet trade, according to Buchanan.
“There’s a lot of illegal
collection that takes place all throughout the eastern United States, including
in New England and Rhode Island,” he said. “There’s a lot of recent cases that
involve hundreds and thousands of turtles from those species illegally
collected from individual populations, which is just totally unsustainable and
has an immediate and lasting impact on those populations.”
Other turtle species that can be
found in Rhode Island include eastern painted, common snapping turtle, and
eastern musk.
“We have a lot of turtles for a
small state,” Buchanan said. “They’re a conservation priority because of their
life history. They’re just inherently vulnerable to population declines.”
Most turtles fall victim to
predators before they mature. Rhode Island’s turtles are also threatened by
habitat loss and fragmentation and by car strikes when crossing roads to
breeding grounds.
Poaching is just another
human-caused threat to their existence.
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| The 16 eastern musk turtle hatchlings confiscated by Rhode Island environmental police from a West Warwick resident in September. (DEM) |
In late September environmental
police officers from DEM’s Division of Law Enforcement found 16 eastern musk
turtle hatchlings, a species native to Rhode Island and the eastern United
States, in the home of a West Warwick man suspected of illegally advertising
them for sale on Craigslist and Facebook.
The case resulted from a
week-long investigation, during which the suspect offered two hatchlings to
undercover environmental police officers for purchase, according to DEM.
The suspect was charged with 16
counts of possession of a protected reptile or amphibian without a permit. The
turtles were taken to the Roger Williams Park Zoo, which has a room and
equipment dedicated to the care of turtles seized from the illegal turtle
trade. The turtles will be released back into the wild after clearing health
screenings and disease testing, according to DEM.
The 16 turtles are still at the
zoo and “doing well,” according to Buchanan. He said only a minority of turtles
rescued from poachers are returned to the wild, because of concerns about
disease and, more importantly, not being able to determine the area from which
they were taken.
The man has claimed the
hatchlings were raised in captivity, but state officials believe the parents
were likely taken from the wild and that the case also involves actions taken
in another state. The case remains under investigation.
Last November, at New York City’s
John F. Kennedy International Airport, about 100 eastern box turtles were found
confined in socks inside an illegal shipment to Asia. A deadly ranavirus
outbreak among the turtles confiscated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
highlighted the risks and cruelty of the illegal wildlife trade, according to
the New England Aquarium.
Federal wildlife officials discovered the wildlife smugglers put multiple turtles, taken illegally from the wild, together into one box without food or water. Found hidden inside falsely labeled boxes, each turtle had been stuffed inside a tight sock to prevent it from moving.
The New England Aquarium took in
many of the turtles and enlisted Zoo New England and Roger Williams Park Zoo to
assist with treating the animals that were in poor health, suffering from
dehydration and eye infections.
Buchanan said the global demand
for box turtles has surged during the past few years.
A Chinese national was sentenced
last year to 38 months in prison and fined $10,000 for money laundering after
previously pleading guilty to financing a nationwide smuggling ring that
sent 1,500 turtles worth nearly $2.3 million from the United States to China.
The man used PayPal, credit cards, and bank transfers to buy the turtles from
U.S. buyers advertising them on social media and reptile websites and sold them
to Hong Kong reptile markets.
He trafficked in five turtle
species, including the eastern box turtle, protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora treaty.
Turtles, especially freshwater
species, are among the world’s most trafficked animals, because, as Buchanan
noted, reptiles can be kept in “explicitly inhumane conditions” — say, a sock
inside a cardboard box — for a significant period of time.
“Enough of them survive to make
it economical [for the criminal enterprise],” said Buchanan, noting most
amphibians are too fragile to keep alive for that long.
Criminal networks connect with
buyers who then sell the turtles as pets, to collectors, and to commercial
breeders. Some species are coveted for their colorful shells or unusual
appearance. In many countries, this illegal trade is either poorly regulated or
unregulated.
To help protect Rhode Island’s
native species, you can submit observations of amphibians and reptiles to DEM
scientists online.
“Remember never to share turtle
locations online,” according to DEM. “It can be exciting to see turtles in the
wild, and to share your discovery. But before you take a photo of a turtle in
the wild, turn off the geolocation on your phone. If you post a turtle photo on
social media, don’t include information about where you found it. Poachers use
location information to target sites.”
There are a few reptiles and
amphibians that can hunted legally in Rhode Island: snapping turtles,
bullfrogs, and green frogs. A current fishing, hunting, or trapping license is
required and hunting/trapping must be conducted in compliance with season and size regulations.
All animals harvested must be killed immediately following capture, as
possession of live turtles or frogs is illegal.
Turtle traps must be marked with
the trapper’s name and address, checked every 24 hours, and set in a manner
that will allow turtles access to air, according to DEM. All bycatch must be
released immediately at the location where the trap was set.
“This illegal collection of
turtles … I think most people have a perception that it’s disparate or kind of
small-time … it’s just some yahoos out there collecting a few turtles, when in
fact it’s perfectly accurate to say the norm is international criminal
syndicates that are driving the trade in turtles that leads to the illegal
collection here in the U.S.,” Buchanan said. “There’s often times a local
collector who’s in contact with a middleman who’s in contact with a criminal
network that’s also involved in things like drug trafficking and human
trafficking.”
Note: The sexual maturity and
nesting habits of the four turtle species of concern in Rhode Island are based
on their life and conditions here. For more information about the turtles of
Rhode Island, click here. To watch a
short U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service video about the importance of turtles
and the threat from poaching, click here.
