Federal officials seized 42 rare Mexican box turtles recently in the three shipments passing from Central America to Asia through the Memphis Port of Entry.
Since their seizure, the turtles have been cared for at the Memphis Zoo. Two of the turtles died from the strain of shipping and one laid a viable egg, zoo officials said Friday.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents became suspicious of a large cardboard box labeled “gifts” on March 24th. Those agents called in a wildlife inspector from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for physical inspections of the live animals and identified them as Mexican box turtles.
The box contained baby formula cans lined with aluminum foil. Inside the cans were white athletic socks, and inside those were the turtles, each wrapped in duct tape. The first shipment of 20 turtles was bound for Asia, officials said.
On April 2nd, agents seized a box described as “spare parts for hydraulic pumps” in shipping documents. Inside, they found 16 turtles wrapped in socks and duct tape and hidden in four coffee cans. The cans were sealed but had holes poked in the top for ventilation.
On April 20th, another box labeled “spare parts for sewing machines” was seized. Inside, agents found more turtles wrapped in duct tape, stuffed into socks, and shoved inside ventilated baby formula cans.
”When they arrived, they were dehydrated and underweight from the holding and shipping conditions,” said Chris Baker, assistant curator of the Memphis Zoo. “Once they conclude treatment and become stable, they will be distributed to [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] partner zoos with expertise in caring for the species.”
Officials said the smugglers purposely poached breeding male and female turtles. Some of the females were carrying eggs. One female dropped an egg in transit due to the “stressful and inhumane way they were smuggled.” That egg could not be saved. But Memphis Zoo is currently caring for another egg.
Mexican box turtles are found only in eastern Mexico in the states of San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz. Roadways there present dangers to the turtles and illegal collection.
Exporting the species is banned and officials said “their presence in the legal pet trade is next to non-existent.” The turtles “are defined as species that may become threatened with extinction without international trade controls,” according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Officials said they weren’t sure where the smugglers caught the turtles, so they cannot be returned to their original homes. For now, the 40 remaining turtles will stay at the Memphis Zoo.
No prosecutions were made in this case, but officials announced the seizure to send “a message to criminals that their business is not welcome here.”
“Wildlife trafficking is a serious crime that impacts imperiled species across the world,” said Edward Grace, assistant director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. “In this case, rare turtles were illegally smuggled into the U.S. The inhumane conditions in which they arrived shines a light on the dark and tragic world of the illegal wildlife trade.”
