14 DAY TRIAL // Many of the ploughshare tortoises living in Madagascar will soon sport tattoos on their backs, and not because they have decided to express themselves by getting inked, but because conservationists are trying to make them less appealing to wildlife traffickers.
Despite the fact that this species is currently considered a critically endangered one, lots of people wish to keep at least one such reptile as a pet, EcoWatch tells us.
According to several reports, traffickers chiefly sell ploughshare tortoises to people living in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
As a result of this thriving illegal trade, the number on ploughshare tortoises living in the wild is steadily declining, and conservationists fear that it is only a matter of time before these reptiles become extinct.
Apparently, folks who keep animals belonging to this species as pets are chiefly attracted to their beautiful, dome-shaped shell.
By engraving code onto the tortoise’s backs, greenheads expect that fewer people will be interested in buying one such reptile from traffickers.
The greenheads working with said organizations have named this initiative “Tattoo the Tortoise.”
Just yesterday, they held an event at the Singapore Zoo, and publicly engraved the shells of two ploughshare tortoises living in captivity at this facility since 2009, when they were confiscated from traffickers.
The goal of this event was to raise awareness of the need to protect this species.