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Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle

Rafetus swinhoei

Status: Critically endangered. Once widespread in the freshwaters of China and Vietnam, they are near extinction due to loss of habitat and hunting. There are only a few individuals left.

Vietnamese legend:

In the fifteenth century, Le Loi became emperor of Vietnam by rising against the Ming Dynasty and driving them out of the country. Breaking the chains of that thousand-year-rule was the beginning of the establishment of his own Le Dynasty.

Legend says that the deity, the Dragon King, provided Le Loi assistance in the form of a magical sword called Heavens' Will. Upon Le Loi's victory, the Dragon King sent an emissary, the Great Turtle God, called Kim Qui, to retrieve the sword.

Le Loi gratefully handed over the divine weapon to Kim Qui, and the spot where this exchange occurred became called "The Lake of the Returned Sword".

To this day, some of the last survivors of a critically diminishing population of soft-shell turtles inhabit that lake, and they are seen as being the mortal incarnations of the Great Turtle God.

 

References:
Hance, Jeremy. "Killing gods: The last hope for the world's rarest reptile". Mongabay, News & Inspiration from Nature's Frontline, Jan 2020. https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/killing-gods-the-last-hope-for-the-worlds-rarest-reptile/

WorldCat Entities Le Loi. https://id.oclc.org/worldcat/entity/E39PBJj8MKKdWKG3cWqKCj63Qq.html

Bettleheim, Matthew P. (2012). "Swinhoe's Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei): The Legendary Sword Lake Turtle of Hoan Kiem Lake". Bibliotheca Herpetologica. Broyles, W. (2010). Brothers in Arms: A Journey from War to Peace. (n.p.): University of Texas Press.