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Germany flies five turtles by holiday jet to the beach
Dec 16, 2009, 18:57 GMT
Frankfurt - Five German-born turtles are to fly to a Seychellois Island beach this week aside vacationers, guests of a German charter airline, the Frankfurt Zoo reported Wednesday.
The turtles hatched at the zoo in March from eggs smuggled into Germany by a woman. She was caught as she came home from a holiday trip to the islands. Zoo director Manfred Niekisch said the eggs were put in an incubator. 'They looked a bit shrivelled, but they smelled fine.'
The hawksbill turtle, whose scientific name is Eretmochelys imbricata, is critically endangered in the wild.
Full-grown hawksbill turtles can weigh 75 kilograms and survive 100 years. Hunters have wiped out huge numbers to obtain tortoiseshell from them for combs and hairclips.
The animals are now 20 centimetres long and ready to fend for themselves. Condor, an airline, has given the turtles a free place in the hold on a flight to the Seychelles and will fly a German animal protection officer, Dirk Hausen, there and back to release them.
The smuggler was fined 5,000 euros (7,300 dollars), German officials said.
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