Thirty-five wild animals which had been caught in Ho Chi Minh City were returned to the wild on Wednesday.

The Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department cooperated with the management board of the Lang Sen Wetland Reserve in neighboring Long An Province to release the animals.

The 35 animals included pythons, giant Asian pond turtles, yellow-headed temple turtles, Mekong snail-eating turtles, and golden thread turtles.

They had earlier been voluntarily handed over to the Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department.

Among the released animals was a 63-kilogram 4.5-meter-long python which had been handed over in February by Dang Dinh Quoc, a 55-year-old a resident of Hoc Mon District.

Quoc said he bought the python in 2000 when it was as big as his little finger and had raised it for 23 years.

It was the largest python that the Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department had received from local residents in the past 10 years.

The animals were released after being cared for by the Cu Chi Wildlife Rescue Station in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department last Thursday also joined hands with the management board of the Phuoc Binh National Park in Ninh Thuan Province, south-central Vietnam to free 28 wild animals, including Javan pangolins, long-tailed monkeys, rhesus macaques, pig-tailed macaques, stump-tailed macaques, elongated tortoises, and Asian box turtles.

All of them had been handed over by residents and organizations to the Ho Chi Minh City Forest Protection Department.

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