Loggerhead turtles at risk of extinction

One of three loggerhead sea turtles swims in the Mediterranean sea after they were set free by Spanish Queen Sofia and her granddaughter Victoria Federica on the Spanish Balearic island of Cabrera. A new federal study says most of the world's loggerhead turtle populations are it risk of extinction. Loggerheads have been listed as a threatened species since 1978.

A female soft-shell turtle

A female soft-shell turtle rests near a pool inside a zoo in Suzhou, China.

Takara the two-headed turtle

Are two heads better than one?

That’s what a schoolboy was left wondering after he came across this two-headed turtle in his school playground in Moriyama, southern Japan.

Takara= "treasure" in Japanese

Green sea turtle

A handler holds up a green sea turtle at the Turtle and Marine Ecosystem Centre in Rantau Abang in eastern Terengganu state, Malaysia. Nearly 900 endangered leatherback turtles were born at the Junquillal beach on Costa Rica's Pacific coastline in recent months thanks to community workers that scare off poachers and protect the eggs, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature said.

Green turtle

A green turtle swims in a tank at the Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo.

Turtles

Turtles sun themselves on a log at the Myriad Botanical Gardens during the Festival of the Arts in Oklahoma City.

Python

This photo shows a python at the Zoological Park in New Delhi. Cambodian authorities have seized nearly half a tonne of live pythons and turtles that were being smuggled from Thailand to Vietnam.

Short-necked turtles

Three of the 13 Australian red-bellied short-necked turtles hatched this past week at the San Diego Zoo. The hatchlings are about the size of a quarter. This aquatic species is native to tropical regions of Australia and New Guinea.

A tortoise that smokes

A tortoise inside its cage at the Emperor Valley Zoo and Botanical Garden of Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago.

A tortoise that smokes and appears to be addicted to nicotine has been discovered in China's northeastern province of Jilin, state media reported.

Olive Ridley turtle

An Olive Ridley turtle coming towards the shore to lay eggs, near Rushikulya river mouth in Ganjam district in Orissa, India.

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

A weeks-old Galapagos Giant Tortoise crawls in front of its 70-year-old mother "Nigrita" inside an enclosure at Zurich zoo.

Fake flipper for sea turtle

Allison, a three-year-old Atlantic Green sea turtle, swims in a holding tank at Sea Turtle, Inc., in South Padre Island. The 5-inch green sea turtle was missing three flippers when tourists found her two years ago and took her to Sea Turtle Inc., a turtle hospital started by a local woman 31 years ago to treat and return injured sea turtles to the wild.