Quang Ngai to build a turtle rescue center

The People's Committee of Quang Ngai Province in July decided to build a rescue center for Vietnamese pond turtles and a zone for preservation of the habitat for this endemic species of turtle in Binh Son district.

Scientists are making the last survey at the preservation zone of Vietnamese pond turtles in Binh Khuong commune, Binh Son district in Quang Ngai province.

The Southern Institute of Ecology will be a key partner with the Asian Turtle Conservation to implement this project. It is expected that the rescue center will be built from August 2013 to May 2014. From June 2014, the natural habitats for the Vietnamese pond turtles will be restored.

According to Dr. Vu Ngoc Long, director of the Southern Institute of Ecology, the Vietnamese pond turtle or Annam leaf turtle (Mauremys annamensis) is a species of turtles in the family Geoemydidae.

It can be distinguished from its relatives by its color pattern: the head is dark with three or four yellow stripes down the side. The plastron (belly shield) is firmly attached, yellow or orange, with a black blotch on each scute.

The Vietnamese pond turtle is an endemic freshwater turtle species in Vietnam, which is included in the list of critically endangered wildlife.

Endemic to a small area in central Vietnam, from Da Nang to Phu Yen, it was reportedly abundant in the 1930s, but all field surveys after 1941 had failed to locate any individuals in the wild. As it was occasionally seen traded as food, it was not yet extinct in the wild however. In 2006, a wild population of Vietnamese pond turtles was found in Quang Nam Province.

Currently, the number of Vietnamese pond turtles in the wild is rapidly declining due to poaching, illegal trade and habitat loss.

A Vietnamese pond turtle.

The Binh Son Pond Turtle Rescue Center is founded in the natural distribution area of this species in the central region to preserve this species.

The center will receive Vietnamese pond turtles which are successfully bred in the U.S., Europe and the turtle conservation center in Cuc Phuong National Park, in Ninh Binh province, to breed and release into the wild.

The goal of the project is the establishment of protected habitat for pond turtles, creating natural habitats for the species. This is one of the first protected habitat zone in Southeast Asia to preserve this critically endangered species of turtle.