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Published on December 22, 2007

  A few weeks ago, a friend dropped by my house with a baby Indian star tortoise. The kid can't be more than six months old, too young even to tell if it's a boy or a girl.

My friend, who says he found it on a road outside a factory, still marvels that he actually saw it amidst the stubby grass where it had nestled. The colours on a star's shell, dark "stars" against a tan background, provide excellent camouflage in the wild. Those colourful designs, though, are also the reason that these animals are popular pets - and endangered.

They are not native to Thailand. Originating in Sri Lanka and India, they are smuggled into this country, where they enter the illegal pet trade. I have no numbers, but for sure the majority of smuggled stars (and other turtle species) die of illness and mistreatment. They are, nevertheless, rather expensive, going for Bt2,000 or Bt3,000 on the market.

My turtle vet absolutely doesn't believe my friend's story that he found the little guy on the road. "No way would anyone throw away this tortoise," she says.

Maybe she's right, but I tend to believe my friend. He's on my list of "crazy friends", but he doesn't lie. So we have a mystery, which solved or unsolved, doesn't really matter.

The vet tells me that the kid is really sick. He's riddled with internal parasites, his kidneys are failing, and he's responding very slowly to medication. I can see the state of his health myself. I weigh him every day when I clean his little container, and even with anti-parasite medication and vitamins, his weight has remained at only 60 grams.

In addition, he's lethargic, moving very rarely and showing no interest in his surroundings. My vet gives him a 50-50 chance of survival.

She has also revised my feeding methods. On the Internet, I read that kale is excellent for turtles, but she disagrees. "Yes, it's an excellent source of calcium," she says, "but for turtles, it's very difficult to digest."

The Internet also told me not to feed the turtles lettuce, which has no caloric value. Again my vet disagrees. "It's excellent for turtles, as it provides the fibre that they need," she says.

I've removed kale from everyone's diet, adding a bit of lettuce to the Chinese greens (pak boong), chopped beans, aubergines, baby corn, watercress and other vegetables.

Protein sources like shrimp and red worms have also been banned because although fine for healthy animals, they're very difficult for a sick baby to digest.

I also make sure that his container is absolutely clean. Tortoises are not water animals, but they do appreciate a tray of fresh water.

Right now, however, I know we'll be lucky if the kid makes it to his first year. It takes a long time for a turtle to recover from injuries and illnesses.

Thus we wait patiently, hoping that this baby, who's led a short life of suffering, will recover and live the 75 years (or more) that Nature has allotted him.

By Laurie rosenthal  

The Nation