📸 PhotoPhoto: Phuongcacanh at Vietnamese Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Swinhoe's Soft-shelled Turtle
Rafetus swinhoei (Swinhoe's Soft-shelled Turtle · シャンハイハナスッポン)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A length of about 1 m is slightly longer than a long umbrella (about 90 cm), and 86 kg is just over four 20 kg bags of rice (Comparison).
- 💡 In Hanoi it is the focus of the 'Hoan Kiem turtle' conservation program, and in 2020 a female captured in Dong Mo Lake was given a health check and microchip before being released back into the lake (Wildlife Conservation Society WCS Vietnam).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
Site-computed relative index from recorded values; not a formal scientific metric.
📖 1. Overview
Swinhoe's Soft-shelled Turtle is a giant softshell turtle living in large, turbid lakes and rivers, considered the rarest turtle in the world. Its IUCN assessment is Critically Endangered (CR) as of 2021.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
A female captured in Dong Mo Lake, Vietnam, in 2020 measured about 1 m in length and weighed 86 kg. An even larger individual of about 130 kg was also sighted in the same lake.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It has declined to the point of being virtually gone in the wild, with capture of adults and eggs and accidental entanglement in fishing gear as the main threats. Drones and environmental DNA surveys are being used in Vietnamese lakes and elsewhere to search for remaining individuals.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List CR (2021) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/39621/2931537
- • IUCN Red List category CR — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 793TZ
- • iucnredlist.org — 2931537
- • wikidata.org — Q1075096
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Rùa Đồng Mô.jpg
- • programs.wcs.org — Worlds-Most-Endangered-Turtle-Gets-Some-Good-News-In-2020.as
- • turtlesurvival.org — swinhoes-giant-softshell-turtle
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Armin Reindl · CC BY 4.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Drazinderetes)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.