In an effort to promote animal conservation, the Taipei Zoo and the Council of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau publicly donated 10,000 US dollars last week to the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) to help set up a halfway house for Burmese Star Tortoise, an endangered species smuggled to Taiwan seven years ago.

Bearing yellow shells with dark brown or black patterns, the Burmese star tortoise is one of the five endangered freshwater turtles and it is becoming extinct in its native Myanmar.

But thanks to the superb technology of Taipei city zoo, it was able to artificially reproduce baby turtles.

On Monday, the zoo donates 10,000 USD to the Turtle Survival Alliance to establish a shelter in Myanmar where turtles are to be released back to the wild.

The authorities caught the rare Burmese star tortoise in smuggling and sent them to the Taipei City zoo.

Also kept in the zoo's conservation center is Radiated tortoise, unique to the island of Madagascar.

Naturally fierce common snapping turtles were also found smuggled to Taiwan.

Some people bought them and later abandoned them.

Since keeping pet turtle is a business, many people are capturing them to make money.

Rarely seen turtles or freshwater turtles would have a high price tag.

The prices are even higher for rare varieties.

Because of the human's desires to keep turtles, now the animal becomes a kind of merchandise, which gives rise to worldwide turtle hunting.

Due to the damage of habitats, nearly half of the 460 turtles in the world are facing a crisis of survival.

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