Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle news

Chlidonias,

Welcome back ...!

Secondly: cannot get my head around the fact that they will clean out the lake and yet are happy to let the species with 4 known individuals to perish. One individual in one lake in Vietnam is a functionally extinct species.

First and foremost, Vietnam should wake up and clean up its act and record on conservation (and wild animal exploitation and consumption).

 

The Hoan Kiem Turtle has now been captured:

BBC News - Vietnam hauls in beloved turtle for medical treatment

Saved at last! 'Sacred' sick turtle of Vietnam finally rescued after month-long bid to capture him | Mail Online

 

One of the last four remaining Yangtze softshell turtles has died in Hanoi:

Cu Rua: Vietnam mourns revered Hanoi turtle - BBC News

 

Well in a very much needed positive turn of events, it appears another Yangzte Giant Softshell Turtle, Rafetus swinhoei, has been found surviving in the wild in Vietnam! This brings the known world population up to four individuals, with the other three being a male, female pair at the Suzhou Zoo in China and another wild individual elsewhere in Vietnam.

No news articles yet so here's the Turtle Survival Alliance's Facebook post:
Turtle Survival Alliance

~Thylo

 

The best Wildlife news I have heard in a long time! Fingers crossed it's a female.

 

That’s an incredible discovery! Will they catch this one and send it to China to try and breed it with the ones in the Suzhou Zoo?

 

My question is: how do they know there is only one? Technically, if eDNA could identify the turtle species, it might be possible also to find whether DNA of more turtles is present.

 

A fourth Yangtze giant softshell turtle has been discovered in Xuan Khanh Lake in Vietnam through an analysis of environmental DNA - tiny DNA fragments left behind by shed skin or waste.

Population of world’s rarest giant turtle rises to 4 with new discovery

 

Its so frustrating, but I just can't see China and Vietnam cooperating on this. They are not good friends. I couldn't see exchanges happening unless in the unlikely event that both nations had produced multiple successful clutches...

 

There are two in Vietnam, maybe the two are male and female, and then Vietnam can have a breeding pair, but I am against China and Vietnam cooperating on this because China has been a part of our Vietnamese history as one of our worst enemies, anyways, there is a possibility the two in my homeland of Vietnam can be a pair.

 

There are four individuals of this species in existence.

Four.

And you oppose making necessary international connections to save them?

The female in China is likely unable to breed successfully. What if the same is the case for the individual in Vietnam? We don’t even know if there is a female in that country. But how could you possibly even consider leaving a species to extinction because of politics, when a solution can be made? I’d like to think the extinction of a species is a justifiable cause for two at-odds countries to cooperate on something.

 

as much as I want to, I guess “cooperating” would be last resort, and its not the government having to cooperate, its the conservationists that decide, so, the government of each country wouldn’t really care about this, so I’m telling you, the older one in Vietnam is probably a male, and if this is a female, Vietnam, by itself can breed those two, but cooperating between the two can probably be a last resort.

 

Last I heard of the species was on a Nature documentary. I actually thought they died and the species was extinct but I’m happy to see the species has at least 4 living individuals. I’m actually surprised that China and Vietnam are not working together as I thought since they are both communist governments they will work together (Yes I’m naive and I don’t know a lot about East Asian and Southeast Asian history) Nevertheless both countries need to work together to breed the turtles or the turtles might as well have tea parties with the dodo birds and the quaggas.

 

There isn't really one set form of communism. The Sino-Soviet split showed that as did the Stalin-Tito split. They aren't really 'communist' anyway. I believe the two countries have historically never really got along too well but I'm not entirely sure. This isn't the place for politics but I do hope that something can be done to help this species.

 

You're right, we have never gotten along historically.

 

That's no reason to let a unique species completely disappear.. It's extinction via stubbornness.

And even if the pair in Vietnam are male/female and even if they breed successfully and even if most or all of the young grow to sexual maturity, are we to consciously allow the gene-pool to remain so inbred when at least a little distinct blood can be added in?

~Thylo

 

I think ZooBinh effectively sums-up the sentiments of the Sino-Vietnamese relations!