Russia seizes over 4,000 smuggled endangered tortoises

Russian border guards have seized more than 4,000 endangered wild tortoises after they were smuggled out of Kazakhstan, officials said. Traffickers drove the 4,100 Central Asian tortoises, which are classed as globally vulnerable, across the border into Russia's Orenburg region in a trailer where they were disguised as cabbages, the interior ministry said Tuesday. Their market value was estimated at 7.8 million rubles (about US$117,000). Investigators placed the reptiles under the care of a coll