It seems that one of the four remaining Yangtze turtles left in the world was near to becoming someone's next pot of soup.  A few weeks ago, after severe flooding of the Dong Mo lake near Hanoi broke a dam, the rare turtle was swept away.  Cleveland Metroparks Zoo turtle conservationists feared that the trutle might be dead.

As it turns out the turtle had been swept away over the dam, and amazingly survived the fall, but was caught in a fishing net. The fisherman to whom the net belonged, took  the turtle home and thus began the bidding for the turtle.  The fisherman was offered thousands of dollars from a local restaurant owner who wanted to make himself some rare turtle soup.

Luckily, Doug Hendrie and Tim McCormack, experts from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo's Asian Turtle Program, negotiated with the fisherman for more than eight hours Tuesday before saving the Yangtze's turtle in exchange for a monetary reward. Hendrie, McCormack and others returned the turtle to its lake.

"It is truly amazing that this turtle could survive such an ordeal," said Geoff Hall, the Zoo's General Curator who visited the lake earlier this month. "We're very thankful that it's over now and the turtle has been returned to its natural habitat."

The Swinhoe's turtle, also known as a Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle, is the largest freshwater turtle in the world and was thought to have been extinct in the wild until the Zoo's discovery earlier this year. Three others of the species remain in captivity, including two at a zoo in China and one in the Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi.

The Swinhoe's soft-shell turtle is considered by many in Vietnam to be a national treasure. The demise of this revered species is largely due to hunters who captured and killed them for food or to make traditional medicine from their bones. Loss of nesting habitats along major rivers and pollution also are to blame.

The Asian Turtle Program is a special conservation program supported by Cleveland Metroparks Zoo and funded by the Cleveland Zoological Society, in partnership with Education for Nature-Vietnam (ENV).

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