Customs officials on Sunday discovered three tortoises in the luggage of a Malaysian man who arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on a Malaysian Airlines flight.
Officers said the tortoises were discovered by X-ray in the luggage of the 48-year-old man surnamed Chan, who said that he had bought them as a gift for a friend.
Customs officers identified the turtles as angonoka tortoises, also known as ploughshare tortoises, which are a critically endangered species classified under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’s (CITES) Appendix I.
Photo: CNA
Native to the northwestern coast of Madagascar, they are listed as one of the world’s three most threatened tortoises in the World Wildlife Crime Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
The name angonoka comes from Malagasy, while the English name for the species comes from the protrusion of the underside of the tortoises’ shell, which resembles a plow.
Only about 1,000 of the tortoises are believed to remain in Madagascar despite artificial breeding efforts.
Buyers pay up to NT$30,000 (US$998) per centimeter for an angonoka tortoise, making them the most expensive pet tortoises in the world, the officers said.
The largest of the three tortoises found on Sunday measured 41cm, giving it an estimated value of NT$1.24 million, while the others measured 26cm and 24cm respectively, putting their combined value at about NT$1.5 million, customs officials said.
Under the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法), those convicted of bringing CITES-classified animals into the nation illegally could face a jail term ranging from six months to five years and fines ranging from NT$300,000 to NT$1.5 million.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
RSS