Meet The Endangered: Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle
Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei)
The Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle once roamed the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and a large swath of northern Vietnam. Today there are only two or three individuals remaining, none of whom are fertile females. The species is thus functionally extinct - but with a 100-year lifespan it may be decades before the last of the line dies out.
The Yangtze Giant is the largest freshwater turtle in the world, with adults reaching up to 100 kg (220 lbs) and exceptional specimens approaching 250 kg (550 lbs). It feeds on an omnivorous diet of fish, snails, crabs, frogs and aquatic vegetation.
The turtle had the misfortune of inhabiting what is now one of the world’s greatest metropolises - Shanghai, a megacity of 25 million people built atop its native habitat. Even if it had survived the urbanization of its native wetlands, it never stood a chance against the ensuing pollution, dam construction, and poaching.
In 2008 a female was found in the wild, and efforts were made to breed her with a 100-year-old male. Yet all captive breeding attempts have proven unsuccessful, and now the only hope to save the species is finding more females in the wild.
There have been unconfirmed reports of a lone individual living in a pond in Laos, and scattered whispers of lake sightings in China. Maybe, somewhere in the unexplored riparian wilderness of Southeast Asia, a soft-shelled Eve awaits.
IUCN: Critically Endangered (CR)