Rarest turtle

The world's rarest species of turtle is the Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), which was formerly native to the Yangtze River and elsewhere in China, as well as Vietnam, but today is represented by only three living specimens. Two of these inhabit lakes in Vietnam, the other (a male) is in captivity in China's Suzhou Zoo. Not surprisingly, it is categorized as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

A female at Suzhou Zoo sadly died in April 2019, so for a brief period there were four known living specimens.

The wild turtles live in two different lakes in northern Vietnam, near Hanoi: Dong Mo (turtle found in 2008) and Xuan Khanh (turtle found in 2018). Another turtle that was living in Dong Mo died in January 2016.