LOS ANGELES - Paul Gibbons carefully placed a 30-pound female tortoise on a table. With a steady hand, he carved a code into its rounded shell. The creature looked calmly into the distance. It is branded for life. For this tortoise, that could be about 160 years.

Tortoises are reptiles that live on land, and don't usually swim. They are related to turtles.

"It's heartbreaking that it's come to this. But it's the right thing to do," Gibbons said. He is in charge of the Turtle Conservancy's Behler Chelonian Center in California. A conservancy protects and saves endangered animals and their homes in nature.

The business of selling endangered wild turtles and tortoises is booming. So, the people who protect them are doing something they never thought possible. They are marking the rarest turtles and tortoises on Earth. This reduces their value to people who want to buy and sell them against the law.

With Numbers And Letters

"We've (spoiled) her natural beauty," Gibbons said. "So she's just a number in a system now." Gibbons carved the numbers and block letters 7001 MG on top of the turtle's back. They are 2 inches high. The letters will not prevent her shell from growing. A tortoise's shell grows at the edges.

The Conservancy's goal is to mark all of 360 ploughshare tortoises in protected programs around the world. It also plans to mark the 300 still left in the wild.

So far, the plan is working. No marked turtle has turned up in an illegal market. The markets break the law by selling rare and endangered animals.

The ploughshare tortoise and others are close to dying out. This is from years of hunting them and destroying where they live in nature. The marking program is an effort to save them. The program is designed to make it harder for people to steal them. It also discourages collectors who will pay thousands of dollars for them. The markings can't be erased. They identify the turtles as stolen.

In December, the Singapore zoo marked two ploughshare tortoises. In October, the Turtle Conservancy helped mark 150 Burmese star tortoises. The marks also include paint and tattoos.

Rescued From Suitcases

The marking program can't keep all turtles safe.

A week ago, Indonesian officials rescued more than 8,000 baby pig-nosed turtles at the airport. They were hidden in suitcases. The suitcases were headed for China and Singapore.

In December, officials in Thailand seized a suitcase. It contained 62 rare radiated tortoises.

Golden coin turtles sell for thousands of dollars. Their price rose after poachers claimed that eating them cures cancer. A poacher illegally captures or kills wild animals.

The two tortoises marked by the Turtle Conservancy came from Taiwan. They were seized in 2008. The female marked 7001 MG laid five eggs in November. They are the first ploughshare tortoise eggs produced in a conservation program.

Gibbons doesn't know if there are baby turtles growing inside the eggs.

At A Secret Location

As the rarest tortoise on Earth, the ploughshares are very valuable. They can cost thousands of dollars on the black market.

The same goes for most of the other turtles being protected at the Conservancy. Because of this, the Conservancy's location is kept secret. It is in a forest in California, but it is not open to the public. Cameras and an electric fence protect it from people trying to steal the rare turtles. The only visitors are turtle scientists from around the world.

Christine Light works for the Conservancy. It is her job to protect the turtle eggs until they hatch. She also cares for the babies until they are old enough to care for themselves.

"This little fella hatched on Monday," Light said. She held up an Indian spotted turtle. It was about the size of a large coin. "Too cute for words, right?"

Last year, they had 294 newly hatched turtles from 13 species, she added with a smile. "Each one of (them) was a little win for our side."]]>