Find a more individual Hoan Kiem turtle in the wild

After several days of searching, the Asian Turtle Conservation Program (ATP) has discovered an additional individual Hoan Kiem turtle in Xuan Khanh Lake (Son Tay, Hanoi), raising the number of individuals of this turtle to the whole The world is four children and opens up the opportunity to pair up to breed conservation of precious turtles.

The Sin-hoe species (Rafetus swinhoei) also known as Hoan Kiem turtle , is considered the world's most endangered, precious and rare turtle. In January 2016, the ' giant ' giant tortoise, the last individual Hoan Kiem turtle, lived in the lake, with an estimated life of over 100 years old. Hoan Kiem Turtle is believed to be nearly extinct in the wild.

Photo of turtle in Xuan Khanh Lake was taken in May 2017.(Photo: Nguyen Van Trong - ATP).

As of 2016, only three individuals of the recorded species exist in the world. In particular, two individuals are being raised at Suzhou Zoo, China. The pair consists of a female and the paired male male that has been breeding since 2008, but breeding efforts have not been successful because of the fertilized turtle eggs. Meanwhile, the only wild turtles were found by ATP staff in the area of ​​Dong Mo Lake, north of Hanoi in 2007.

Through ATP surveys, many priority areas for species conservation have been identified. However, for most of these areas, records of species hunting are old and may have disappeared completely in many areas. Most giant turtles have been hunted in artificial lake areas built in wetlands. However, there are also many large lake areas with complex terrain, and an area of ​​more than 1,000 hectares. This turtle has a mysterious behavior, rarely floats and sunbathes, often using most of its time in deep waters. This makes it difficult and time-consuming to format the recorded individuals.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, ATP officer, is conducting a water sample filter at the lake to prepare for environmental gene analysis.(Photo: ATP).

To solve this problem, ATP cooperated with Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) of the United States and Dr. Caren Goldberg of Washington State University to apply Environmental Genetic Engineering (eDNA) in finding species. this turtle.

eDNA is a new technique that has been researched and applied in the study of turtles and wildlife. Dr. Goldberg is one of the pioneering experts in this area. This technique focuses on detecting the smallest genetic traces in the collected water sample where it is necessary to verify the existence of a certain animal. This method is often applied to fish and amphibians, recently, this technique has been applied to endangered turtles.

ATP collected water samples from many different lakes, including Dong Mo Lake where the only known wild Hoan Kiem turtle exists. However, eDNA samples did not yield the expected results. Perhaps, the dilution factor in large water areas, along with the possibility of only one surviving individual, made this process difficult.

At the end of 2016, ATP has news of a large size soft shell turtle seen in Xuan Khanh Lake, Son Tay Town, not far from Hanoi and Dong Mo Lake.

Earlier, Ho Xuan Khanh was surveyed by this organization in 2012. At that time, a photo of a large turtle on the lake appeared. However, this picture is not clear enough to confirm this is a picture of a turtle.

With new information in 2016, ATP decided to conduct more observations in 2017. After thousands of hours of observation, the group saw the turtle a few times.

Mr. Nguyen Tai Thang, ATP officer conducted an observation survey at Xuan Khanh Lake, Vietnam.(Photo: ATP).

In particular, in May 2016, Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, a former fisherman who participated in conservation with ATP, took a picture of the turtle. The picture shows that this is a large soft-shell turtle, but it is unable to format the species.

ATP decided to conduct eDNA sample collection and sample analysis at Washington State University laboratory. The positive analysis results conclude that genetic traces from water samples are consistent with the existing species of the species, indicating that the turtle in the lake is an individual of the Hoan Kiem turtle. This finding raised the total number of individuals in the world currently known to four.

This result brings new hope, with the possibility of pairing wild individuals in a controlled environment for conservation breeding purposes.

However, the conservation and future of this world's rarest turtle is still unsecured, more effort is needed to protect known individuals, capture, identify sex and move them to the end. a place to conduct pairing. The ATP is still surveying other priority areas of the Hoan Kiem turtle and hopes the use of environmental gene technology will help confirm other turtles.