Very bad news: According to activists, Last female Yangtze giant tortoise found deadso they fear that this animal species could become extinct… What happened to the specimen?
Last female Yangtze giant tortoise found dead
According to information from DWthe organization Indo Myanmar Conservation reported that the last female Yangtze giant tortoise was found dead. Yes, this happened last Sunday, May 7, right on Dong Mo Lake, west of the Vietnamese capital..
For this reason, the local authorities decided start to investigate and find the cause of death of this giant turtle.
It should be noted that one of the last Swinhoe softshell turtlesof which there were three living specimens, died at the end of April in Hanoi.
What is known about the turtle?
The last dead female Yangtze giant tortoise, scientifically named “Rafetus swinhoei”, He was 156 centimeters long and weighed 93 kilos.although these animals can reach 150 kilos.
In addition, according to DW, until now the existence of three specimens of this species has been reported worldwide; one in a zoo in China, another in the Vietnamese lake of Xuan Khanh and a female in the Dong Mo lake, where the body appeared.
Although it was not initially certain if it was the same female turtle, the head of the Asian Turtle Program for the Conservation of Indo-Myanmar confirmed that it was the same one and added that it was the last reported female.
“This is the same individual that we have been following for the past several years. It’s a hard blow”, told TIME Tim McCormack, Director of the Asian Turtle Program for the Indo-Myanmar Conservation.
“She was a large female who obviously has a high reproductive capacity. She could have potentially laid a hundred eggs or more a year.”he finally added.
To finish, it should be noted that in 2019 the one believed to be the last female turtle of this species had already died, but then this one that recently died was reported. For this same reason, they do not rule out the existence of another specimen in another part of the world..
