One warm June night in 2019, a turtle emerged from a large fish pond and ascended a tiled ramp to a specially constructed spawning area.
The stones and plants were removed, the sand was raked, sifted, and watered. This was exactly to her liking.
When your species is facing extinction, no effort is too great for the caring scientists. Using her hind legs and webbed feet, she dug into the chamber, laid 112 spherical, hard, grape-sized eggs, covered them with sand, and carried on.
Little is known about the ecology of Burmese soft-shelled turtles, so when scientists at the Pearl River Fisheries Research Institute in Guangzhou, China had the opportunity to attempt captive breeding, they eagerly took it.
Adult Burmese soft-shelled turtles have a flexible, leathery, slate-colored carapace measuring around 1 meter (3.3 ft) in length. This makes them one of the largest freshwater turtles in the world.
They have a striped neck, pointed head, and short snout. Their population is declining due to habitat destruction and illegal trade for food in Myanmar and Thailand.
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The turtles proved challenging to breed in captivity, but Chinese scientists, experienced with closely related species, prepared the site and installed surveillance cameras.
Two adult turtles rescued from the Mekong River were housed in a pond with carp and tilapia for 25 years. To facilitate breeding, large fish were removed and small fry were introduced for the reptiles to feed on.
The hard work paid off when the female returned to lay eggs four more times over the following months, resulting in a total of 564 eggs. These eggs were carefully incubated by scientists, leading to nearly 200 new turtles hatching successfully.
Each new hatchling weighed as much as a tablespoon of butter, with a shell just over 3cm wide.
In a recent academic paper from 2022, 180 surviving juvenile turtles were reported. They were housed in plastic tanks, fed live fry, and were seen to grow significantly in weight.
It takes many years for these young turtles to reach adulthood, but this success story has provided valuable insights into their reproductive biology. The plan is to continue learning and breeding these unique turtles.
As wild populations decline, the hope is that captive-bred turtles and their offspring can one day be reintroduced into their natural habitats to restore dwindling populations.
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