The turtles hatched back in November, are all healthy and active

Dec 27, 2013 23:11 GMT  ·  By

Staff at the Wildlife Conservation Society's Prospect Park Zoo in New York City has recently announced that this facility is now home to five rare Chinese big-headed turtles.

Conservationists explain that this species, which is native to China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, is currently listed as an endangered one.

By the looks of it, the species has folks who like to feast on such reptiles to thank for the fact that it is now in danger of going extinct. Zoo Borns tells us that the five Chinese big-headed turtles that now call the Prospect Park Zoo their home hatched back in November.

They are quite popular, and not only because they are annoyingly cute. On the contrary, the turtles owe their popularity to the fact that they are the first of their kind to be successfully bred at a facility accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

Thus, in order to get their parents to start a family, keepers had to recreate very specific environmental and climatic conditions in captivity.

Commenting on the birth of these turtles, Denise McClean, director of the WCS Prospect Park Zoo said that, “With so many of the world’s freshwater turtles and tortoises facing extinction, these hatchlings represent significant progress for the conservation of the species.”

Furthermore, “The science could help expand breeding programs to other facilities and can be useful to conservation work in the field.”