A microchip saves a rare Cambodian turtle from the soup pot! via AP story on Yahoo News.
Poachers had snatched this "Royal Turtle" in Cambodia (named because its eggs were once fed to kings) from a Cambodian river two months ago and toted it across the Vietnamese border on a motorbike with a stash of other, more common, turtles.
After a wildlife specialist helped identified it as a Batagur baska, a species thought to have disappeared in Cambodia until it was rediscovered in 2001, a microchip implemented in the turtle's skin was discovered. Conservationists eventually began tagging the animals with tracking devices and monitoring their nests, and King Norodom Sihamoni personally ordered their protection.
The microship helped the turtle be repatriated back to Cambodia.