TORRANCE, Calif. 鈥� In the back of an office building, in a small room that smells like rotting strawberries, a criminal investigator watches his evidence crawl around on wood chips in five open plastic tanks.
The box turtles, native to eastern North America, were found at a nearby international mail facility in Los Angeles about a week prior, packaged in a series of boxes bound for Asia.
鈥淭hese guys were being illegally exported,鈥� said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) special agent, who asked to remain anonymous because of his undercover work. 鈥淣ow it鈥檚 an ongoing investigation in terms of who shipped them.鈥�
The 40-some box turtles have a more immediate problem. They鈥檙e evidence of a crime and its victims. Distressed, possibly sick, and half a continent away from a home they鈥檒l likely never see again, the turtles need specialized care and a long-term home.
Seized animals rarely get returned to the wild because it鈥檚 difficult to know where, specifically, they came from. They could carry disease.
鈥淲hat to do with confiscated live animals has been a concern for as long as I鈥檝e been a wildlife inspector because of the quantity, the care,鈥� said Tamesha Woulard, a 36-year veteran of the FWS Office of Law Enforcement. 鈥淲hat happens after they鈥檙e here?"
Last year, the FWS and the Association for Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) launched a pilot project aimed at answering that question in Southern California. With wildlife trafficking surging globally, the organizations are now in talks to expand the program to other parts of the country.
鈥淲e鈥檙e reacting to a crisis,鈥� said Sara Walker, senior advisor on wildlife trafficking at AZA. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 do anything to actually reduce demand.鈥�
The seized shipment of turtles included a mix of Eastern Box Turtles, native to the eastern U.S., and Yucatan Box Turtles, native to Mexico. The Yucatan Box Turtles have pale white heads.
The illegal wildlife trade is surging
Wildlife trafficking is one of the crime sectors in the world. Estimates of its value range from annually. A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that more than 4,000 species are being targeted by traffickers globally, to be sold as food, medicine, ornaments or pets. The crimes are causing 鈥�,鈥� said Ghada Waly, the office鈥檚 executive director, jeopardizing 鈥渓ivelihoods, public health, good governance and our planet鈥檚 ability to fight climate change.鈥�
An analysis by Moody鈥檚 Analytics that used government data from around the world found that from 2018-2021, wildlife trafficking .
The latest available data from the FWS shows that from 2015-2019, nearly 50,000 live plants and animals were seized or abandoned in the U.S. over that four year period 鈥� an average of about 27 individuals per day.
Woulard said the number is definitely higher today.
鈥淭o me, what was highlighted after COVID is that people will try to make money using a lot of different methods,鈥� she said. 鈥淓-commerce has exploded and there are people that are making pets out of animals that were never pets before.鈥�
Squirrels, skunks, scorpions and snakes.
鈥淏ut then I started finding ants,鈥� Woulard said. 鈥淎nts? Really?鈥�
Illegal trade isn鈥檛 always nefarious, she said. Well-meaning pet enthusiasts don鈥檛 always know they鈥檙e purchasing something that was collected or shipped illegally. Importers don鈥檛 always mean to ship something that鈥檚 not allowed. Southern California is a hotspot for the legal import of tropical fish and corals, which can be hard to properly identify.
鈥淭here is a legal trade,鈥� Woulard said. 鈥淲hat we do is we facilitate the legal trade and we intercept the illegal trade.鈥�
When a live animal is seized by authorities, regardless of the reason, the authorities assume responsibility for the animal and its well-being.
At the FWS office in Torrance, there鈥檚 a room with saltwater tanks to house seized fish, corals and clams. The small room occupied by the 40 scurrying box turtles, a few doors down, has housed everything from rare birds to monkey-tailed skinks 鈥� 鈥渓arge lizards that don鈥檛 play well with each other,鈥� Woulard said.
Their job is to keep the animals alive, she said. 鈥淟ong enough for them to get to a place with better care.鈥�
A new approach
In the nine months since the Wildlife Confiscations Network launched, participants said it鈥檚 helped streamline the process of getting animals triaged and placed in long-term care facilities.
It鈥檚 also helped law enforcement officers 鈥渨ho are being absolutely inundated with live animals being smuggled,鈥� said Walker, with the AZA.
Since August of last year, the network has helped place more than 1,300 animals at zoos, aquariums and conservancies in the region. The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach has taken in 500 individual corals and clams in the last six months, said Nate Jaros, senior curator of fishes and invertebrates at the aquarium.
鈥淲e really don鈥檛 harvest any wild coral for this,鈥� he said, pointing to a massive display tank with schools of darting fish and colorful corals. 鈥淢ostly in-house propagation and confiscations have been enough to fulfill our coral exhibit needs.鈥�
Animals that can鈥檛 be placed are likely to be euthanized. Fortunately, Walker said, since the Wildlife Confiscations Network launched in October that hasn鈥檛 happened yet. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 going to happen in the future, I鈥檓 sure,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just running out of space.鈥�
Efforts are underway to launch similar networks in other parts of the country, Walker said, with the goal of creating a national network. The effort is 鈥渙bviously a reactive initiative,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e reacting to a crisis. It doesn鈥檛 do anything to actually reduce demand.鈥�
American turtles are increasingly part of the illicit trade
For some of the seized box turtles, temporarily housed at the Fish and Wildlife Service office, their long-term home is likely to be a couple hours drive north, at The Turtle Conservancy in Ojai, Calif.
Since 2017, the conservancy, which is closed to the public, has taken in about 500 confiscated turtles, including about 100 box turtles in just the last year.
The surge in American turtles being illegally collected and trafficked is part of a broader trend, said James Liu, director and head veterinarian at the facility.
鈥淣ow that there鈥檚 a lot more wealth in these Asian countries that have always liked turtles 鈥� they鈥檝e always valued them as pets, as traditional medicine, as food 鈥� they now have the means to buy them from other countries,鈥� he said.
The U.S. has the greatest turtle biodiversity in the world. That richness, coupled with steep declines in Asian turtle populations 鈥� what conservationists have dubbed the 鈥� and economic hardships in the U.S. following the COVID-19 pandemic, 鈥渉ave created this perfect storm where now Americans are the people who are poaching and sending them to China,鈥� Liu said.
A single box turtle can be sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on its coloration, wildlife officials said.
In the conservancy鈥檚 quarantine room, where new arrivals are kept for 60 days to be screened for disease and to be nursed back to health, Liu wiped the shell of a male box turtle with a wet rag. Its gleaming shell looks like a Rorschach test of ink black and golden orange.
The conservancy鈥檚 staff measured the turtle鈥檚 weight and moved on to the other confiscated turtles they had taken in. Their tanks run the length of a wall, stacked three high.
鈥淚t's a quarantine, but really it's an evidence locker,鈥� Liu said. 鈥淚nstead of cocaine and other contraband, it's living creatures. It's native U.S. turtles.鈥�
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