Rare And Endangered, Directorate General Of KSDAE Returns 13 Snake-necked Turtles From Singapore To NTT

Head of BBKSDA NTT Arief Mahmud saw a snake neck turtle or rote turtle that had just arrived in Kupang City (ANTARA)

KUPANG - The Directorate General of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (Ditjen KSDAE) returned 13 snake neck turtles or rote turtles from Singapore to East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

Head of the National Natural Resources Conservation Center for NTT Arief Mahmud said the repatriated rote turtles (Chelodina McCordi) consisted of six male turtles and seven female turtles with an age range of six years.

Arief explained, the rote tortoise is an endemic animal to Indonesia which is only found on Rote Island and is classified as an endangered animal.

According to the international agency for the conservation of nature (International Union for Conservation of Nature's / IUCN), the rote tortoise is critically endangered (CR).

The Rote tortoise will undergo a habituation process in a captivity in Kupang City before being released back into its natural habitat in Rote Ndao.

"This is done to prevent some of the turtles from getting sick when they are released into their habitat in Rote," said Arief in Kupang, Antara, Thursday, September 23.

"We will continue to monitor their progress every day. We hope that all of them are healthy so that later we can release them in their habitat."

Arief said the repatriation of the rote tortoise from Singapore is part of efforts to restore the rote tortoise population in the wild.

Upon arrival in NTT, the rote tortoises returned from Singapore were each placed in a box, the lid of which was immediately opened upon arrival at the quarantine location.

After being recorded, the turtles were immediately transferred to a glass box filled with water.