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In October 2021, after weeks of searching, a boulder-sized turtle with an intricately squiggled face and piggish snout was discovered in Đồng Mô Lake on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam. Researchers analyzed her blood and confirmed the turtle was a female Yangtze giant softshell turtle, or Rafetus swinhoei, the first known female of her species since 2019. Turtle conservationists rejoiced; the species had dwindled to just one male Yangtze giant softshell turtle living in a zoo, and the discovery of the female offered science a last chance to revive the species.
But in late April of this year, the female washed up dead on the shores of Đồng Mô Lake. She was more than five feet long and weighed more than 200 pounds—a truly giant turtle. Now there are just two surviving Yangtze giant softshells, both male, one living in Suzhou Zoo in China and the other in Xuân Khanh Lake in Hanoi. The cause of death remains unknown, Time reported.
Within the last century, the turtles were abundant in rivers in Vietnam—as common as "chickens in the garden" in Đồng Mô Lake, a former turtle hunter Le Huy Hoanh told Mongabay. But decades of hunting, dams, and pollution fragmented and killed off almost all of the remaining turtle populations. The species' extinction is not yet certain—the Asian Turtle Program has hope there may be another R. swinhoei turtle surviving in Đồng Mô Lake—but it seems the most likely possibility. It would be an unsurprising end, foreshadowed by years of quests for wild turtles that turned up empty and artificial insemination efforts that failed, or, worse. (Xiangxiang, the 90-year-old female Yangtze giant softshell, died in 2019 after a fifth attempt at artificial insemination.) And even if a miracle were to happen and another female turtle were to surface somewhere in the wild, the turtles' natural habitat of the Yangtze River and Red River in China and Vietnam and surrounding wetlands have been degraded, polluted, and dammed.
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But in late April of this year, the female washed up dead on the shores of Đồng Mô Lake. She was more than five feet long and weighed more than 200 pounds—a truly giant turtle. Now there are just two surviving Yangtze giant softshells, both male, one living in Suzhou Zoo in China and the other in Xuân Khanh Lake in Hanoi. The cause of death remains unknown, Time reported.
Within the last century, the turtles were abundant in rivers in Vietnam—as common as "chickens in the garden" in Đồng Mô Lake, a former turtle hunter Le Huy Hoanh told Mongabay. But decades of hunting, dams, and pollution fragmented and killed off almost all of the remaining turtle populations. The species' extinction is not yet certain—the Asian Turtle Program has hope there may be another R. swinhoei turtle surviving in Đồng Mô Lake—but it seems the most likely possibility. It would be an unsurprising end, foreshadowed by years of quests for wild turtles that turned up empty and artificial insemination efforts that failed, or, worse. (Xiangxiang, the 90-year-old female Yangtze giant softshell, died in 2019 after a fifth attempt at artificial insemination.) And even if a miracle were to happen and another female turtle were to surface somewhere in the wild, the turtles' natural habitat of the Yangtze River and Red River in China and Vietnam and surrounding wetlands have been degraded, polluted, and dammed.
The Last Female Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle Is Dead | Defector
The species' extinction is not yet certain but seems the most likely possibility.
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