Drugs, guns, stolen art … and box turtles.
Turtle smuggling has long been a problem at U.S. airports, but trafficking has increased sharply in the past few years, conservationists and law enforcement officials say, driven in part by a big boom in the exotic pet trade in China.
Organized crime networks are recruiting locals — or, in some cases, flying foreigners into the United States — to poach native reptiles, they say. Captured turtles are then smuggled out of the country.
“It makes you wonder, are there any more turtles in the wild, with the numbers we’re seeing?” said Paul Chapelle, an assistant special agent who heads the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement. “They’re going out by the hundreds.”
Not all of them vanish into the black market, though. In a quiet corner of the Bronx Zoo, some rescued survivors are getting a second chance.
In open-topped enclosures filling two rooms, the reptiles — a mix of eastern box turtles and ornate box turtles — burrow into mulch, bask under heat lamps and slowly march from corner to corner. They were all seized over the past few weeks at Kennedy International Airport as smugglers tried to ship them out of the country.
“There just seems to be an insatiable demand for these turtles,” Mr. Chapelle said.
In China and some other Asian countries, turtles have long been sought for traditional medicine and meat, said Alice Hughes, a conservation scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
But trafficking has grown much worse in the past few years, driven in part by “massive growth” in the exotic pet trade in China, Dr. Hughes said. In crowded cities where apartments are often small, turtles may appeal to those looking for a unique pet that will not take up much space.
“It’s a growing market, and a market that is frequently being ignored,” Dr. Hughes said.
Box turtle species are regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora and require permits to legally cross international borders. But once American turtles are smuggled into mainland China, Dr. Hughes said, they “fall into a gray area, where they can be sold under the assumption of legality.”
In the United States, turtle trafficking is on the rise at most international airports, especially New York City and Los Angeles, and at international mail facilities and express consignment hubs, Mr. Chapelle said. The Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners have intercepted more than 2,500 turtles at U.S. airports, international mail facilities and express consignment so far this year, he said.
Inhumane treatment during shipment is the norm, Mr. Chapelle added. Traffickers frequently pack turtles in socks and diapers to absorb any urine and feces, bind them into their shells with duct tape and deprive them of food and water. Many do not survive transit. “People in these networks treat them like any inanimate object,” Mr. Chapelle said. “If they die, they just get more.”
Rescued turtles cannot just be released back into the wild. They may be injured and require rehabilitation, and may have been poached far from where they were seized. Cramped together, turtles can also easily pick up pathogens, which they could then pass on to wild populations if released.
In addition to known turtle diseases, veterinarians at the Bronx Zoo have identified more than a dozen new virus variants in turtles coming into their care. “That is one huge complicating factor we’ve run into in managing these confiscated animals,” said Dr. Aubrey Alonzo, a veterinarian at the zoo.
The Bronx Zoo, which is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society, is one of the few facilities in the United States equipped to take in dozens to hundreds of turtles at a time. But more than 850 rescued turtles have arrived since October 2024, and staff are struggling to keep up. “We’re already a large zoo with a lot of animals to care for, so when we get 200 turtles that come in at once, that’s a significant drain on resources,” said Kevin Torregrosa, curator of herpetology at the zoo.
Release into the wild is the ultimate goal. More than half of the turtles that have come to the zoo have been returned to their natural habitat, including in Texas, Ohio, New Jersey and Oklahoma, Mr. Torregrosa said.
As long as demand in Asia remains high, however, there is a risk that released turtles will be recaptured by poachers.
Mr. Chapelle and his colleagues are trying to make it harder for turtle poachers and smugglers to operate. In late July, at least 162 eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles were found dumped in Cranford, N.J., as Fish and Wildlife Service agents closed in on a suspected smuggler. “That was absolutely tied to one of our investigations,” Mr. Chapelle said.
Members of the public can help by reporting suspicious activity to the wildlife authorities, he said.
“If you see someone picking up turtles, it might not be as innocent as it looks,” Mr. Chapelle said.
