SANDAKAN: A total of 500 turtle cages were given to the management of the Turtle Islands Park (TPPP) to help protect and conserve the turtles around Bakungan Kecil, Selingan and Gulisan Islands, near here, recently.
IS this a case of fatal attraction? Has the ancient beauty of hawksbill turtle tortoiseshell landed it in a population crisis and may prove its undoing?
Population sizes of hawksbills have “sharply declined” due to many human factors but the most profound is the harvest of its carapace scutes (bony scales) known as tortoiseshell or bekko, fuelled by the intensive shell trade on the tortoiseshell which is a luxury item used to make elegant combs and brushes, jewelry boxes and ornaments, well into the 20th century.
IN 2019, the Terengganu government grimly declared their Leatherback turtle had gone extinct from Rantau Abang. A sad West Malaysian failure to keep this great ancient gift that had existed in its present near-tonne form since the days of the dinosaurs.
KOTA KINABALU: The threat of turtle egg smuggling from the Philippines to Sabah is a serious issue, and authorities on both sides are working together to prevent it from continuing.
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