Tag: Turtles

Floreana-Riesenschildkröte
Illustration of the Floreana giant tortoise — once one of the most distinctive giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, today probably extinct in its original form.

Floreana giant tortoise: From extinction to return

A subspecies of the Galapagos tortoise When the Floreana giant tortoise was still alive, it was part of the extraordinary tortoise fauna of the Galapagos Islands. Hardly anywhere else on Earth did a comparable diversity of giant land tortoises evolve—adapted to different islands, volcanoes, climate zones, and food resources. Today,

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vom Aussterben bedrohte Jangtse-Riesenweichschildkröte
A rare individual of the Yangtze giant softshell turtle, photographed in 2011 in Dong Mo Lake near Hanoi, Vietnam. The critically endangered species is on the verge of extinction — every documented individual is of great importance for conservation. (© Phuongcacanh at Vietnamese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Last Hope for Rescue: The Search for the Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle

It is one of the rarest turtle species in the world — it may even be the rarest of all: the Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei). The species is critically endangered and may already have disappeared from the wild. At present, only two male individuals are known worldwide. Yet

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