Mission Cuora

“Unexpected high forest turtle diversity in hill forests in northern Vietnam” is the title of our paper which was recently published in high ranking journal Biodiversity and Conservation. It has recorded 9 turtle species presence at this hilly forest that accounted for 18% of the currently known total chelonian fauna in the Indo-Burma turtle hotspot. The turtle that we found the most from field survey were Indochinese box Cuora galbinifrons (n=3), Black breasted leaf turtle Geoemyda spengleri (n=2). Interview survey has recorded 124 specimen/live individuals of 9 turtle species that have found at local hunters/traders house. This paper is the results of very strong effort of the Turtle Sanctuary team that spent almost full month camping inside forest and two weeks of interview survey in remote areas.

The survey is not only carried out by Turtle Sanctuary’s turtle expert but Turtle Sanctuary’s snake expert also joined the team to study the snake composition and ecology at the survey area in Tam Thanh commune’s forest, Quan Son district, Thanh Hoa province, Vietnam. The survey area was Subtropical Moist Forest that lie along the border between Vietnam and Laos. According to the snake survey result, we also published another paper regarding “characteristics of relatively undisturbed snake communities in hilly forest in Northern Vietnam” which will release soon in coming months.