Turtle

Police seized at least 4,000 red eared slider turtles at Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul on Feb. 15, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.

The turtles were seized in three different items of baggage during the mobile baggage x-ray scanning process, according to a written statement issued by the Customs and Trade Ministry.

The young patient writhes on the operating table, kicking its flippers. A team of medical attendants turns it over, revealing an underbelly cluttered with tumors, some as big as golf balls.

Discoveries in an Israeli cave dating back 200,000 years show that early humans ate turtles alongside plants and large game animals, the Tel Aviv university said on Feb. 2.

Measures to protect sea turtles on Turkish coasts have been successful, allowing thousands of babies to reach the sea. Very few, however, reach old age Thousands of rare turtles have reached the sea on Turkey's coasts thanks to greater conservation efforts by Turkish authorities, according to Forestry and Water Affairs Minister Veysel Ero?lu.

A dead caretta-caretta sea turtle was found off the coast at Petre Beach, Rethymnon, Crete, after being captured in a net. Another nearby sea turtle however was luckier. Cretans who saw the turtle managed to rescue the turtle and free it from the fishermen’s nets.

Two Bulgarian citizens who cooked 17 endangered turtles and ate them have been arrested in the country's southern town of Krumovgrad, police say.

The detainees, aged 59 and 26 respectively, have been charged with trying to exterminate an endangered species, according to private national TV7 channel.

No details about the exact species were immediately available.

Turkish Environment and Urban Planning Minister ?dris Güllüce has sought to assure concerned citizens that his institution will not sacrifice the idyllic beach of ?ztuzu, renowned for being one of the most important breeding areas for loggerhead turtles (caretta caretta), for "a few sunbeds."

As sea turtle nesting season ends, 100,000 babies have reached the turquoise waters of Turkey's southern coast, a Turkish scientist has announced.

Six beaches in Mersin province saw more baby sea turtles compared to last year, Mersin University Deputy President Prof. Dr. Gürol Emekdaş said Sept. 6, according to Doğan News Agency.

Sea turtles, known as caretta carettas, began laying eggs on the coasts as the egg laying season begins in Turkey. The turtle nests on the coasts are being protected by volunteers Endangered caretta carettas and the green turtles (chelonia mydas), which are under protection, began laying eggs on the coast in the southern province of Hatay’s Samandağ district.