Microchip saves turtle from soup pot

[emad]

Microchip saves turtle from soup pot


This rare and endangered terrapin was likely headed for a soup pot but was saved by keen-eyed wildlife officers.

(AP) -- They're calling him "the lucky royal turtle" -- a rare and endangered reptile that was saved from a likely fate in a Chinese soup pot by keen-eyed wildlife officers and a microchip.

Poachers snatched the animal, a species called "Royal Turtle" in Cambodia because its eggs were once fed to kings, from a Cambodian river two months ago and toted it across the Vietnamese border on a motorbike with a stash of other, more common, turtles.

Conservationists said that at 33 pounds, the animal was sure to have fetched a good price when it reached the smuggler's destination: The food markets of China, where turtle meat is a delicacy often made into soup.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07/20/lucky.turtle.ap/index.html