Thousands Of Amazon River Baby Turtles Released In Peruvian Forests

Illustration of Amazon River baby turtle podocnemis unifilis. (Wikimedia Commons/Haplochromis)

JAKARTA - About 3,000 river baby turtles native to the Amazon rainforest were released into a Peruvian river on Thursday after hatching from eggs deposited on artificial beaches as part of conservation efforts.

River turtles are considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and have for years been killed for human consumption, or kept as pets.

"The importance lies in conserving the species in the area, because it has been under threat for a long time," said Sabrina Pipa, a biologist who works on the protection of freshwater turtles.

"The goal is the repopulation of the species," he continued.

This river turtle has the scientific name Podocnemis unifilis, but Peruvians call it taricayas. They are mottled with yellow and the size of a baby is only a few inches.

It is known, Peru has the second largest part of the Amazon rainforest after Brazil. Scientists agree that conserving the Amazon rainforest is very important, to avoid catastrophic climate change because of its ability to absorb greenhouse gases.

However, over the past two decades, more than 19,700 square kilometers (7,600 square miles) of the Peruvian Amazon have been destroyed.

Pipa said the taricaya project started in 2019 and has already protected about 6,000 river turtles, in addition to those conserved this year.

This river turtle conservation effort received a warm welcome from local residents. People gather in the city of Iquitos to watch baby turtles walk along the river shore toward the water.