Straits Times 2 Jun 08;
LONDON - WITH only three males and a single female left in the world, it is love or bust for the Yangtze turtles, which are on the brink of extinction, reports Britain's The Observer.
Scientists are waiting to see if a sprightly 80- year-old female will respond to her centenarian suitor.
Only four Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles are known to exist. Of the three males, one is found in a zoo in Suzhou, another in Hoan Kiem lake in Hanoi, and the third in the wild in a lake east of Hanoi.
Until recently there was no known female, until Changsha Zoo in Hunan alerted scientists about an unidentified turtle, which turned out to be a Yangtze turtle.
Today China Girl, as she is affectionately named, is in a special enclosure at Suzhou Zoo, where she is getting acquainted with her suitor.
She was moved there three weeks ago and almost immediately the pair began preliminary breeding activities. Considering that neither had seen another of their own kind for many decades, and that males can be aggressive when breeding, it has gone better than expected.
Said Mr Rick Hudson, from the Turtle Survival Alliance: 'We had mounting attempts within a couple of days - and it's still going on.'
No one knows how long Yangtze turtles live, but China Girl had been producing unfertilised eggs. Ultrasound examinations showed that she was still fertile. The Chinese wanted to try artificial insemination, but no technique has yet been developed and turtles have died after the procedure in the past.
So eventually the old-fashioned way was decided on. 'It can't get more desperate than this,' said Mr Hudson. 'This truly is the last gasp of a species and the risk we are taking is considerable. But the consequences of not doing anything are much worse.'
