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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Photo: China's Turtle Farms Threaten Rare Species, Experts Say


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A golden coin turtle was among more than a thousand illegally imported turtles confiscated from a New York loft in 2003. The species has been sold for the equivalent of a thousand U.S. dollars an ounce in China, where purchasers believe the meat can cure cancer.

Turtle farms in China have been touted as a way to reduce demands on wild populations. But in a recent letter to a conservation journal, experts from China and the United States say that the rapid expansion of commercial turtle farming could continue to place native Chinese species at risk and could increasingly threaten species imported from other parts of the world.

Photograph by Chip East/Reuters