WILDLIFE authorities in the U.S. state of Florida caught a man who killed and ate 15 gopher tortoises and planned to slaughter 11 more of the threatened reptiles, a spokeswoman said over the weekend.

    The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said a tip-off led an officer to woods in Citrus County on Florida’s west coast where he found tire tracks and shells dumped on the ground. Returning the next day, he found a container holding 11 live gopher tortoises.

    “He hid himself and waited, figuring the subject would return that afternoon,” the FWC said in a statement, adding that when the man came back he admitted to feasting on the threatened species.

    Katie Purcell, a spokeswoman for the FWC’s law enforcement division, said prosecutors were preparing appropriate charges. The 11 tortoises were set free.

    The officer involved, Thomas Reid, said the man knew what he was doing was a crime.

    Florida designates gopher tortoises as a threatened species, meaning it is illegal even to possess one. (SD-Agencies)