Police in central Turkey on Tuesday freed 7,500 frogs that had been destined for export.
Gendarmerie officers in Gülşehir, in the heart of the tourist region of Cappadocia in Nevşehir province, found the amphibians in dozens of nets when they stopped a minibus during a routine vehicle stop.
Five men arrested for trafficking the frogs told officers they caught the frogs in the Kızılırmak river basin, a gendarmerie official said.
They said they were transporting the frogs to the southern province of Adana, where they intended to sell them to an exporter, the official added on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.
Hasan Huseyin Doğançay, head of the district livestock agency, oversaw the release of the frogs back into the Kızılırmak.
He said it was the first time he had encountered such large-scale poaching.
"We just released the frogs back to nature because they were caught without permission and outside permitted hunting areas," he told Anadolu Agency.
Turkey has a number of licensed frog hunters who usually sell their catches to the French or Chinese markets.
