After being rescued by smugglers, a three-legged tortoise of the rarest species in the world was fitted with rollers to help it move again.
Hope, a ploughshare turtle, was found in a suitcase in Hong Kong by customs officers in 2019.
Before arriving in Cheshire, the male was missing his front leg and was fitted with undershell support rollers.
Dr Gerardo Garcia, the zoo’s director, said that Hope was an “incredibly special tortoise”.
Ploughshare tortoises are a Madagascar native species that are among the most endangered animals in the world. There are less than 300 left in the wild.
According to a zoo spokesperson, only 63 specimens are legally found outside of Madagascar under vital conservation breeding programs that fight to save the species.
He said, “Chester Zoo now has four of these,”
He said that the species was highly prized because of their unique black and gold shells and fetches “exceptionally high prices on the black market.”
Officials at the Hong Kong border discovered Hope and 56 other endangered tortoises three years ago.
The suitcase’s owner, an East African man from the Comoro Islands, was later sentenced to two years in prison for smuggling.
To help the reptile balance, it was first taken to an animal rescue center in Hong Kong. Support rollers were then fitted under its lower shell.
After Hope arrived in the UK, further modifications were made to Chester Zoo’s rollers.
Dr Garcia, the curator of lower vertebrates at the zoo, said that Hope’s life had been “remarkable”.
He stated that the “prosthetic mobility assistance” worked “wonderfully well.”
He said, “He moves even faster than his three neighbors,” he continued.
Mike Jordan, director of animals and plants, said Hope was an “important addition to the Zoo”.
He stated that the species was under “huge pressure” to survive and that there was a real chance it could die forever.
He said that Hope would “maintain an Ark population” and participate in a breeding program to create a “genetically viable safety net population” to prevent its extinction.
He said, “We are not going to let this amazing species go.”
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