Elephants on the loose, S.African rangers on the chase; Peru seizes 4,000 live Amazon turtles at airport
by AFP Staff Writers
Johannesburg (AFP) Dec 21, 2023

South African rangers were on Thursday trying to apprehend a group of elephants that escaped from a game reserve and waded into a rural area, wildlife authorities said.

A helicopter had located the about 10 tusked animals and was attempting to herd them back to the eastern wildlife park they broke out overnight, authorities said.

Rangers were hoping to have all the runaway pachyderms safely within the Ithala reserve's boundaries by Friday, said Musa Mntambo, a spokesman for Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife -- a governmental organisation managing wildlife in the KwaZulu-Natal province.

It was not immediately clear how the elephants broke loose.

Mntambo said animals sometimes cross a river bordering the game reserve.

But parks in the area have also had trouble with local residents and poachers cutting down or stealing perimetral fences.

Hunters poke holes in the security perimeter to access the park illegally but "don't close the fence" when they leave, Mntambo said.

"By the time we are aware that the fence has been cut, there might be one or two animals out already," he told AFP.

Last year, six lions were put down after they escaped from the nearby Hluhluwe game reserve and started killing livestock and terrorising people living in the area.

Authorities urged locals to report fence-cutting incidents, saying these caused unnecessary costs and placed "the lives of innocent community members at risk of being attacked by dangerous wild animals".

Peru seizes 4,000 live Amazon turtles at airport
Lima (AFP) Dec 21, 2023 - Peruvian authorities have seized some 4,000 turtles that originated in the Amazon at the country's main international airport, the national wildlife service said Thursday.

The National Forestry and Wildlife Service said in a statement it has intercepted "a shipment of live turtles at the Jorge Chavez airport that were going to be exported to Indonesia."

Among the reptiles were baby Arrau turtles -- the largest river turtle in South America -- and the yellow-spotted river turtle, which were found in small transparent plastic containers inside cardboard boxes.

Both turtles are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora Appendix II, which requires the tracking and regulation of trade.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the yellow-spotted river turtle, the second largest freshwater turtle in the Amazon, as vulnerable to extinction.

According to Interpol, the black market for illegal wildlife products are worth up to $20 billion per year, and is pushing many species to the brink of extinction.

CITES says that tortoises and turtles are one of the most threatened groups of animals in the world.

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