Environment

National park helps raise baby tortoises

The Con Dao National Park in the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province has released about 150,000 baby tortoises into the sea since 1994.
The Con Dao National Park in the southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province hasreleased about 150,000 baby tortoises into the sea since 1994.

The park is the first in Vietnam to effectively implement a programme for conserving and rescuing tortoises.

Thepark has 14 beaches where tortoises lay eggs over an area of thousandsof square metres. The five largest such beaches - Bay Canh, Hon Cau, HonTre Lon and Hon Tai, besides Duong - have five forest managementstations to protect the tortoises.

Every year, from May to October, more than 400 tortoises lay eggs on the sand banks in the park.

Six hours after the eggs are laid, forest managers shift them to brooding holes to protect them.

The eggs hatch after 45 to 60 days and the baby tortoises are released into the sea.

Inthe natural environment, tortoises' eggs face several threats such asbeing eaten by other species or stolen by illegal tortoise catchers. Itis estimated that only one out of 1,000 baby tortoises born survives toreach the reproductive age, the Con Dao National Park said.-VNA
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