“If I were a turtle, I wouldn’t want to live or be born in West Africa, or Africa, period,” he said.
The 46 turtles making the journey from Monaco’s Oceanographic Museum to the turtle village of Noufle, about 35 kilometers (20 miles) from Senegal’s capital Dakar, are all young – the oldest only eight years old.
Their parents – six turtles who were left behind in Monaco – were a gift to Prince Albert II from Senegal’s former president Amadou Toumani Toure in 2011.
After the quarantine, the young turtles will “learn the ABCs” of life in the wild for a few months, Diagne said after their arrival on Tuesday.