Elephant Tails Ep8 - A Long Journey Home for 100 Star Tortoises

Strong international wildlife laws are critical to cracking down on poaching and protecting endangered species. We've all seen the caches of seized elephant tusks or rhino horns, but what happens when live animals are intercepted while being transported by black markets? 

This is a story of a large group of Indian star tortoises seized in Singapore and repatriated to their native home on the Deccan Plateau in India.

Wildlife SOS Director of Marketing and Communications, Dana Wilson chats with Thomas Sharp about the great lengths governments and animal welfare organizations went to help these little victims of the exotic pet trade. 

Tom is a Director of Conservation and Research for Wildlife SOS and Co-Chair IUCN Sloth Bear Expert Team specializing in sloth bears, Asian elephants, reptiles and leopards in India. With 25 years of experience studying wildlife around the globe, Tom has worked with many species from turtles, snakes and crocodiles, nesting birds and raptors, small mammals, blue bull deer, and of course bears, leopards and elephants. He received his Master’s in biology from Northeastern University in Chicago.

Learn more about Wildlife SOS at wildlifesos.org