A wildlife officer prepares to place a smaller tortoise into the box with ‘Anna’ prior to being sent to Matang Wildlife Centre.
SIBU: A businessman went out of his way to rescue a captured tortoise from several villagers here last month by forking out RM500 to take it off their hands.
In relating the incident to The Borneo Post, Jackson Wong said upon coming across the reptile, he immediately pleaded with the villagers not to harm it.
Wong (right) and his daughter poses with Sarawak Forestry Corporation officers prior to ‘Anna’ being shipped to Kuching where she was subsequently released.
“I feared the tortoise would end up in the cooking pot, so I offered to buy it from them,” the 27-year-old said, adding the group initially asked for RM1,000 for the 12.5kg female tortoise, but he was able to get them to settle for RM500.
Wong said after completing the purchase, he contemplated releasing the reptile back into the forest but decided against it, fearing it would only be caught again. He then brought the tortoise back home and fed it vegetables and fruits.
“It seemed to like apples, carrots, cucumber, cabbage and kangkong (water spinach). It even loved crawling around my house, but this (keeping it) couldn’t go on as it was not its natural environment,” he said.
He then got in touch with Similajau National Park and was advised by an officer there to take the tortoise to the wildlife protection centre at Bukit Lima Forest Reserve here, and did so with his daughter on Monday afternoon.
“We handed it over to the officers there, who identified it as an Asian forest tortoise and named her ‘Anna’.
“They then had her shipped to Matang Wildlife Centre in Kuching, arriving there the same evening,” he said.
According to Wong, he was informed that wildlife officers in Kuching had released Anna back into the wild.
“They even took a picture of Anna before releasing her back to the wild. It’s thoughtful of them and very heartwarming.”
Wong thanked wildlife officers here and in Kuching for their commitment in caring for and protecting Sarawak’s wildlife, and hoped the public would refrain from keeping such wildlife in captivity.