Improving the lives of endangered turtles and tortoises everywhere.
Our mission is to save turtles and tortoises from extinction and to enhance their quality of care in captivity.
With dwindling habitat and wild populations, the time is running out to better understand, protect, and preserve our worlds turtle and tortoise species.
In the news…
Smuggled Alive: Turtles and Tortoises Trafficked Across the Mexico-U.S. Border
A look inside the illegal turtle and tortoise trade operating through the world’s busiest land border crossing — and the enforcement vacuum making it possible.
June 15, 2026 - by Natalie Jane Cibel
“This story was originally published by The Revelator.”
By the time Mexican turtles and tortoises arrive in Chris Rodriguez’s rehabilitation center in Southern California, most of them are in desperate shape.
“As with most illegally smuggled animals, they arrive dehydrated and often malnourished,” says Rodriguez. He’s the cofounder of Carapace Conservation, a rescue and rehabilitation organization specializing in trafficked turtles. “This stems from them being collected over a period of time and held in poor conditions until the poachers have enough animals to send.”
Rodriguez says the most frequently confiscated species trafficked through the Port of Los Angeles are box turtles and mud turtles. They’re prized by wildlife traffickers precisely because their colorful shells make them attractive to the pet market and their habits make them easy to catch in the wild.
And they’re not alone.
Click HERE to continue reading the article.
Who we are.
Carapace Conservation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a focus on saving endangered turtles and tortoises from extinction. Conservation for this unique group of reptiles includes protecting habitats, incentivizing local communities to protect them, putting a stop to poaching for the black market, and maintaining healthy captive breeding populations.
These shelled reptiles are often a keystone species in their environment, maintaining the landscape, dispersing seeds, and digging burrows for safe retreat of multiple species. Without them their landscapes could change drastically affecting all the other species that share the habitats.
Our goal is to raise awareness of the threats faced by turtle and tortoise species around the world today, build a better understanding of their dietary and husbandry requirements for high quality care in captivity, and establish genetically diverse assurance colonies in captivity. We believe these actions, along with habitat protection, are essential to the survival of those species that face extinction today.
How you can help.
With assurance colonies of endangered turtles and tortoises now around the world the time has come to include a focus on the health, husbandry, and welfare of turtles and tortoises in captive. These breeding assurance populations are the future of their species as deforestation and human sprawl runs rampant across the globe. It is our obligation to provide them with the best care possible.
Whether you would like to support scientific research, conservation and protection, establishing higher quality care, public education or rescue efforts we have a project that could use your support.
Tortoise Care
Do you have a new tortoise? Is it a grassland species? We have a basic downloadable care sheet available to help you get started and keep your tortoise healthy and thriving.
