Instead of an exterior shell commonly associated with turtles, the Cantor’s giant soft-shell turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over its internal organs. (Photo: David Emmett / CI Cambodia)Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A rare soft-shell turtle thought to be on the brink of extinction has been discovered in Cambodia in a former stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, conservationists said Wednesday.
An 11-kilogram (24 pound) female Cantor's giant turtle — known for its rubbery skin and jaws powerful enough to crush bone — was captured and released by researchers in March, U.S.-based Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.
Scientists from the two groups and Cambodian wildlife officials discovered the animal and a nesting ground during a survey in Cambodia's Mekong River region.
"We thought it might be almost gone, but found it in abundance in this one pristine stretch of the Mekong, making the area the world's most important site for saving this particular species," David Emmett, a CI wildlife biologist, said in the statement.
"This incredible discovery means that a unique turtle can be saved from disappearing from our planet," he said.
The turtle is currently classified as endangered by the World Conservation Union, and continues to face threats from habitat loss and hunting.
The species can grow up to 2 meters (6 feet) in length and weigh more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds). It was last spotted by scientists in the Cambodian wild in 2003. It was also found in small numbers in Laos, but appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand.
The turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over its internal organs. It protects itself from predators by spending 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud with only its eyes and nose showing.
It also has long claws and can extend its neck with lightning speed to bite with jaws powerful enough to crush bone, the statement said.
"It has the fastest strike of any animal I've ever seen, including cobras," Emmett said.
The statement only said the turtle was found in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold long closed to scientific exploration because of security concerns. The communist Khmer Rouge ruled the country from 1975-1979 and their reign of terror resulted in the deaths of about 1.7 million people.
The area is "a near pristine region of tall riverine forest, waterways and island archipelagos where further exciting biological discoveries will almost certainly be made," Mark Bezuijen of WWF's Living Mekong Program, who led the survey team, said in the statement.
It was the first detailed conservation study of the area since security restrictions were eased in the late 1990s, WWF said.
Bezuijen said the find highlights the need to protect the area from poachers and others who could threaten the turtles' habitat.
International and Cambodian turtle conservation officials will hire local villagers to protect nesting beaches for the turtles and conduct patrols during the dry season to prevent illegal fishing of the species, which is prized as an expensive delicacy in neighboring Vietnam.
The villagers will also receive financial incentives to offset the potential loss of revenue from illegal trade in the turtles, WWF said.
An 11-kilogram (24 pound) female Cantor's giant turtle — known for its rubbery skin and jaws powerful enough to crush bone — was captured and released by researchers in March, U.S.-based Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.
Scientists from the two groups and Cambodian wildlife officials discovered the animal and a nesting ground during a survey in Cambodia's Mekong River region.
"We thought it might be almost gone, but found it in abundance in this one pristine stretch of the Mekong, making the area the world's most important site for saving this particular species," David Emmett, a CI wildlife biologist, said in the statement.
"This incredible discovery means that a unique turtle can be saved from disappearing from our planet," he said.
The turtle is currently classified as endangered by the World Conservation Union, and continues to face threats from habitat loss and hunting.
The species can grow up to 2 meters (6 feet) in length and weigh more than 50 kilograms (110 pounds). It was last spotted by scientists in the Cambodian wild in 2003. It was also found in small numbers in Laos, but appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand.
The turtle has a rubbery skin with ribs fused together to form a protective layer over its internal organs. It protects itself from predators by spending 95 percent of its life hidden in sand or mud with only its eyes and nose showing.
It also has long claws and can extend its neck with lightning speed to bite with jaws powerful enough to crush bone, the statement said.
"It has the fastest strike of any animal I've ever seen, including cobras," Emmett said.
The statement only said the turtle was found in a former Khmer Rouge stronghold long closed to scientific exploration because of security concerns. The communist Khmer Rouge ruled the country from 1975-1979 and their reign of terror resulted in the deaths of about 1.7 million people.
The area is "a near pristine region of tall riverine forest, waterways and island archipelagos where further exciting biological discoveries will almost certainly be made," Mark Bezuijen of WWF's Living Mekong Program, who led the survey team, said in the statement.
It was the first detailed conservation study of the area since security restrictions were eased in the late 1990s, WWF said.
Bezuijen said the find highlights the need to protect the area from poachers and others who could threaten the turtles' habitat.
International and Cambodian turtle conservation officials will hire local villagers to protect nesting beaches for the turtles and conduct patrols during the dry season to prevent illegal fishing of the species, which is prized as an expensive delicacy in neighboring Vietnam.
The villagers will also receive financial incentives to offset the potential loss of revenue from illegal trade in the turtles, WWF said.
17 comments:
Fuck the conservation, let the Thai
does that for us, since they are
rich. I just love Salor Majou
SoftShell Turtle. They are very
healthy for you. It will come in
handy for those who can't afford
to visit the stupid blue-eyed
doctors.
talk like an idiot. very embarrasing.
The Viet in diskay, they feel ashame of their own parents!
What is so embarassing, 8:03? I
don't think the damn softshell
turtle is indigenous in Cambodia.
I bet there are tons in the
countries around us. The stupid
bleu-eyed scientists always panic
over nothing as they normally did
on everything else. That is just
their nature, and we can see that
in Ah Khmer-Gringoes who lived
with them for over a couple decades
or so. Accordingly, calm down, will
ya? There is no need to make poor
people suffers from lack of food
because someone else is having a
nervous breakdown.
To 9:08PM Fucken Vietcong bitch!
You Vietcong bitch don't need to shout at the whole world for your own stupidity! The fact that these turtle still exist in Cambodia says alot about Vietcong behavior toward the world around them!!These fucken Vietcong don't give a fuck about anything and they like to eat to kill and be wasteful that is why the turtle don't even exist anymore in the Vietcong land!
There is nothing good came out of the Vietcong occupation in Cambodia for 10 years! If it wasn't for Mr. Sam Rainsy in the way to stop some of the Vietcong slave policies, Cambodia situation will be like the extinct turtle in the Vietcong land!!
Oh, and which Mr. Sam Rainsy's
policy might that be that stop
the Vietcong from causing
extinction to our turtle, lok kru
10:30? Stop contaminating us
with your stupid dream, will ya?
11:09pm you stupid, all Sarasy/s policy thet stop your Evil Yuon Vietnamese from destroy Cambodia!
If he win that the end of you evil, that is the drean that will come true!
Whenever Sam Rainsy spoke against deforestation, against corruption, again illegal trade of wildlifes, against impunity, against selling the national heritages to the highest biders so you CPP supports cannot get fatter with dollars-
that help the endanger turkles, tigers, sunbear etc....
Leave it the CPP and their supporters to sell and destroy every national resources without thinking about the future for the next generation of Cambodian children.
listen all your dumb crackhead.
i didn't sign that treaty or order to block krt, or rordered to step on the turtle, it was ah chor yuon who did it on their own and put the blame on me. I am ah hun kvak how can i see or know how to read?
i wanted to run away but ah chor yuon threated to kill me and my family members. what can I do if each time i am forced to talk. ah hok lundee is yuan and how many times he slept with mi j'rouk my wife? all the time. it hurts me so bad to see mee j'rouk did with ah chor yuon Hok in front of my face. :( :(
WTF, 11:46? could you give me
a few examples of the Sam Rainsy's
policies that stopped Yuon from
destroying Cambodia? I never heard
of such a thing, and I want to
learn about it a little bit, okay?
12:27, the problem with Sam Rainy
is he had not spoke against the
high unployment rate, and take
some positive action to help
bring it down. Has he done that,
he need not to spoke much about
the stuffs you mentioned above
because it would not be as bad
when most people are busy working.
Get the idea?
aLL WORKING LIKE POL POT ERA!
Not really because they have option
to work or not work. Pol Pot don't
give anyone option. They all must
work equally for equally shared
foods.
1:16 AM
You do not "get it". Do you not see the direct ill effect of corruption and bad govt on the creation of jobs? Why is the Korean cannot establish stock exchange in Phnom Penh? May be due to lack of laws. Why is it that in countries with bad govtmnt, Africa or Latin America for examples, people cannot grow economically.
What the fuck? Every country has
corruption in it and they are doing
fine. Do you think China is that
clean? They are in the same boat
as us as poor country, but experts
has predicted that they will be
the economic superpower in the
future, and right now there are
plenty of Korean investors in
China and Vietnam, and Vietnam
aint that clean either. So don't
give the craps.
What we need here is simply
political stability like in China
and Vietnam, so that we can sell
some of our services to other
country investors, as simple as
that. And as they coming in, our
tax revenues will go up, which in
turn, allowed us to knock down
more corruption by paying our
public servant better and having
more law enforcing officers,...,
and the cycle go on.
What you're proposing is impossible.
That is elliminating corruption
in a poor country. Where have you
seen that happening? They can't
even do that in some area of the
US. Louisianna is a good example
of that. 28%+ of people are under
poverty. Do you know that?
I don't understand the obscene acerbe, racist and groundless of the man who made the above comments. He shows his arrogance and complete ignorance of the works of other people. Big regret that those kind of people exist on Earth.
Ah stop crying like a baby. What
the fuck is your counter-argument?
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