This June, our Rafetus team conducted a two-week field observation at another large lake in northern Vietnam to find remaining wild Rafetus after the discovery of the second wild individual in Xuan Khanh Lake in April 2018.
The weather has been super-hot in northern Vietnam, with the water level at the Lake going down significantly, making the team’s job easier as they had a smaller area on which to focus. During this survey, we also used a sonar FishFinder to learn more about the composition of the lake and look for the turtle under water. We also made use of ANDe kit which was developed by Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) as part of a larger collaborative project with the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES) in Hanoi, the Turtle Survival Alliance and Washington State University. Filtration of water samples for eDNA was undertaken at the lake edge.
We hope to successfully confirm the third wild Rafetus for Vietnam this year!!!
We would like to send our sincere thanks to the Quang Ninh Forest Protection Department and Yen Lap Lake Management Board for their legal support to this observation. We would also like to thank Turtle Conservation Fund and The Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund for their financial support to this activity.
Press Release by: Nguyen Tai Thang – ATP/IMC
Date: 20th June 2018
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