A turtle that was thought to have gone extinct in the wild has been discovered living in a Vietnamese river.

Researchers spent three years searching the Red River in northern Vietnam before finding the only known wild specimen of Swinhoe’s soft-shell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei, also called Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles).

“This is an incredibly important discovery because the Swinhoe’s turtle is one of the most critically endangered species of turtle in the world,” says Doug Hendrie, coordinator of the Asian Turtle Program at Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, which sponsored the Vietnam survey (press release). “This species has legendary status among the people of Vietnam, so this is perhaps an opportunity for the legend to live on.”

The BBC says some are sceptical of the find as “the creature could be a member of a much more common, similar-looking species”.

However National Geographic reports that Peter Pritchard, president of the Chelonian Research Institute, has confirmed the new sighting as a genuine Swinhoe’s. “It looked like pretty solid evidence. The animal has a pretty distinctive head,” he says.

Prtichard also says that a different Swinhoe’s was photographed in southern China about six months ago.

Last year the New York Times reported on plans in China to breed what were then thought to be the last known female and last known male Swinhoe turtles in the world. Although, what ‘extinct in the wild’ means is debatable. Cleveland Metroparks Zoo says that in a lake in Hanoi there is one other individual of undetermined sex – it’s quite tricky to tell a male from a female, apparently, although this is not thought to be a factor in their demise… *.

*Reuters notes of the Hanoi lake dweller:

The legend tells how the 15th century Emperor Le Loi used a magic, divine sword to drive out Ming invaders from China.

A giant turtle emerged while Le Loi was boating on the lake and told him to return the sword to the Dragon King. The weapon shot from its sheath into the mouth of the turtle, which disappeared underwater.

Since then, the lake previously called Ho Luc Thuy or Green Water Lake, became known as The Lake of the Returned Sword.

Image: Cleveland Metroparks Zoo