The Yangtze giant softshell turtle species had no expectation to come back from disappearing forever.
Or so we thought, when the last 100 years old female died at Suzhou zoo in china after a failed insemination. Leaving the 80 years male to be the last of its kind, that is until an individual was found in a lake in northern Vietnam. Tests have confirmed that said turtle is female. With this discovery, another turtle is believed to live there. Plans are made to capture and confirm the specie and gender of the said individual. If it happens to be a female setting up a real breeding program to save them is becoming a closer reality.
Observing this specie in the wild has proven to be difficult, despite their huge size they spend most of their time in deep waters, only coming out to breathe. Many believes that there is more than those few left in the wild even if we are talking about one or two more.
2021 has a good start, especially for this huge turtle !
Factual Animals 