From time to time, our mind comes up with random questions, such as, “What is the biggest animal in the world?” or “What is the fastest animal in the world?”. Therefore, today we are going to reveal here which is the rarest animal in the world. Check out!
Well, this title was given to the Rafetus Swinhoei, popularly known as soft shell turtle. So, here's more information about this species of reptile from the Trionychidae family.
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The soft shell turtle comes from the China It's from Vietnam, it had its discovery dated in 1873 by the specialist in turtles of the British Museum John Edward Gray. His first name was oscaria swinhoei and was described at the time as the most beautiful species Gray had ever seen.
Some studies show that the genus Rafetus is, in fact, very old. The difference between Swinhoei and Rafetus stems from the geographic isolation that took place 50 to 55 million years ago. With the emergence of the Himalayan range, the waters of this region were divided, causing the species to be isolated and the evolution to be different for each one.
They are freshwater aquatic turtles and can reach one meter in length. This rare animal usually feeds on crabs, fish, snails, frogs, aquatic plants and leaves.
Due to human action, this beautiful animal almost became extinct. The constant interventions of rivers and pollution drastically reduced its population, making it the rarest in the world.
Furthermore, along with the destruction of their natural habitat, their near-extinction is also linked to the exploitation of its flesh and the fact that its bladder has already been widely used in medicine traditional.
Now, the soft shell turtle is an animal protected by law in Vietnam and several entities are looking for ways to discover new ways to guarantee the maintenance of the species in the world. Since 2019, the Fisheries Department of Hanoi, Vietnam, has been seeking to develop strategies for looking for and capturing the animal.
According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Hanoi, Vietnam, in a brilliant partnership with the Asian Turtle Program (ATP) of Indo Myanmar Conservation (IMC) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), reported that they managed to capture a female of the species in October 2020 in Lake Dong Mo.
This news is wonderful, as there are great chances of this rare turtle reproducing with the only specimen, until then, existing: a male, who lives in a zoo in China. However, the good news does not stop there.
According to information contained in Revista Galileu, animal protection entities believe that there is one more turtle living in Lake Dog Mo, and another two in Lake Xuan Khanh, in Vietnam. With this, there is a plan being developed for the broad conservation of the species.
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