‘We currently have a tortoise in the sanctuary,’ says assistant manager Nicole Kouwen of Dierenasiel de Kuipershoek. That only happens once a year, maybe not once, she says. “Water turtles, we’ve had a lot of them, but tortoises are rare.”
The water turtle has become an established exotic, it just sits in the ditches. “In the summer we get calls 40 times from someone who has seen a water turtle somewhere.” Then the asylum workers ask if there is water nearby and if the shield is intact. “If that is the case, we say: let it sit.”
But a tortoise cannot survive in the wild. Stoffel, as they have called this specimen, would not last long in the polder. “He just doesn’t belong there.” Not that he belongs in the shelter, but in is certainly easier in Stoffel’s case than out. This is because a tortoise cannot just be given up for adoption. “We need certificates just to move it,” says Kouwen.
Because Stoffel is a CITES registered animal. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is an agreement to combat trade in endangered animal and plant species. Every time a CITES animal changes owner, it is considered a commercial act, and every new owner must be in possession of a CITES certificate.
The CITES convention has three categories in which an animal species can fall. Stoffel falls into Appendix II, which means that he belongs to an animal species that could be threatened with extinction, partly due to international trade. He doesn’t notice it himself, but it means that not everyone who likes him can just adopt him.
“He goes to a specialist shelter, or to a private person with a CITES statement,” says Kouwen. They often find a good home after all. For example, they recently had a red-tailed gray parrot, which falls into Appendix I, which has even stricter requirements. They also found a home for that, with the vet of a large zoo.
Outside the CITES registration, a gray parrot and a tortoise have not very much in common. However, with both there is a good chance that they will survive their owners. The parrot can live to be 60, Stoffel can live to 100. “It is only a little one, he is not yet a year old,” says Kouwen. Just do the math.