http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...l_U1RwD94MN01O0
SON TAY, Vietnam (AP) — A rare Vietnamese turtle, one of just four believed left in the world, was swept away by a flood, taken hostage by an enterprising fisherman and nearly ended up in a soup pot.
Instead, the 150-pound animal returned to its lake Wednesday and conservationists celebrated their deal with the fisherman — the turtle's freedom in exchange for about $200 and two new fishing nets.
Only three other members of the rafetus swinhoei species are known to exist — two are in Chinese zoos and another lives in Ho Hoan Kiem, a lake in downtown Hanoi named for its association with a legendary turtle.
According to legend, a magic turtle snatched a sword from the Vietnamese King Le Loi as he boated on the lake and returned it to the gods who had lent it to the king to help him defeat Chinese invaders. The lake has since been called Ho Hoan Kiem, or the Lake of the Returned Sword.
Full Version: Rare Vietnamese turtle survives and returns to Vietnam
Only 4 left in the world and 1 in Vietnam? This turtle is going to be extincted anyway 
QUOTE(ltk @ Dec 2 2008, 11:58 PM) [snapback]4032448[/snapback]
Only 4 left in the world and 1 in Vietnam? This turtle is going to be extincted anyway
Pretty much.
get ready for turtle soup soon 
Did they find the sword too?
that turtle about to be medium rare 
QUOTE(ltk @ Dec 2 2008, 11:58 PM) [snapback]4032448[/snapback]
Only 4 left in the world and 1 in Vietnam? This turtle is going to be extincted anyway
With their martial arts, I don't think so.
Once again... Than Kim Quy! 
can't they make out?
what is the size of the largest turtle in the world?
cant they reproduce?
^No they can't make out or reproduce because there are only 4 of them, even though they are able to reproduce the genetics in the gene pool will be too little and could not support the species.
Say we have 4 individuals
A B C D
A reproduce with B. Offspring has AB genes. C and D and offspring has CD genes
2 choices for the offspring, either mate with their sister or brother (AB + AB) or with CD (AB +CD = ABCD)
Mating with your own sibling poses a huge risk as your offspring could be hugely malformed or a disease could wiped out the entire population because there is no variation of genes. So these offspring mates with the other offspring (AB+CD = ABCD) which now are all ABCDs have only 1 choice that is to mate with their own brother and sisters, thus the population have no genetic variations to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
So the main point is that a population of 4 could not maintain the species as they could not produce a huge genetic variations that will enable the population to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
Well i hope i explain it in a correct and understandable way.
Say we have 4 individuals
A B C D
A reproduce with B. Offspring has AB genes. C and D and offspring has CD genes
2 choices for the offspring, either mate with their sister or brother (AB + AB) or with CD (AB +CD = ABCD)
Mating with your own sibling poses a huge risk as your offspring could be hugely malformed or a disease could wiped out the entire population because there is no variation of genes. So these offspring mates with the other offspring (AB+CD = ABCD) which now are all ABCDs have only 1 choice that is to mate with their own brother and sisters, thus the population have no genetic variations to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
So the main point is that a population of 4 could not maintain the species as they could not produce a huge genetic variations that will enable the population to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
Well i hope i explain it in a correct and understandable way.
QUOTE(DutchEastIndiesMan @ Dec 4 2008, 05:37 AM) [snapback]4034065[/snapback]
^No they can't make out or reproduce because there are only 4 of them, even though they are able to reproduce the genetics in the gene pool will be too little and could not support the species.
Say we have 4 individuals
A B C D
A reproduce with B. Offspring has AB genes. C and D and offspring has CD genes
2 choices for the offspring, either mate with their sister or brother (AB + AB) or with CD (AB +CD = ABCD)
Mating with your own sibling poses a huge risk as your offspring could be hugely malformed or a disease could wiped out the entire population because there is no variation of genes. So these offspring mates with the other offspring (AB+CD = ABCD) which now are all ABCDs have only 1 choice that is to mate with their own brother and sisters, thus the population have no genetic variations to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
So the main point is that a population of 4 could not maintain the species as they could not produce a huge genetic variations that will enable the population to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
Well i hope i explain it in a correct and understandable way.
Say we have 4 individuals
A B C D
A reproduce with B. Offspring has AB genes. C and D and offspring has CD genes
2 choices for the offspring, either mate with their sister or brother (AB + AB) or with CD (AB +CD = ABCD)
Mating with your own sibling poses a huge risk as your offspring could be hugely malformed or a disease could wiped out the entire population because there is no variation of genes. So these offspring mates with the other offspring (AB+CD = ABCD) which now are all ABCDs have only 1 choice that is to mate with their own brother and sisters, thus the population have no genetic variations to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
So the main point is that a population of 4 could not maintain the species as they could not produce a huge genetic variations that will enable the population to defend it self from diseases or malformation.
Well i hope i explain it in a correct and understandable way.
This applies to animals as well? I'm sure there are other giant turtle species to introduce its genes to make a new offspring and probably an entirely new breed of giant turtles.
yepp even if they do mate, the remaining survivors do not carry enough genetic variability to protect it from future viral agents. If a Virus can kill one it can kill the entire population. This is like the case of the Hawaii Nene. The last time I checked, there is only about 200-400 left on the island and the genetic variability is very limited compare to their ancestors because a handful of them were captive and home breed by a gentleman who barely saved them from extinction. Now they face a new challenge, beside from being eaten by mongoose they have very low genetic variability as mentioned earlier.
Welcome to the extinction list along with the other 99% species that ever existed on earth.
Welcome to the extinction list along with the other 99% species that ever existed on earth.
QUOTE(Goombaking209 @ Dec 5 2008, 01:42 PM) [snapback]4035067[/snapback]
This applies to animals as well? I'm sure there are other giant turtle species to introduce its genes to make a new offspring and probably an entirely new breed of giant turtles.
It's not as easy like what you said, first both species might not mate because of the differences in physical appearance they might even kill each other, then the introduced organism has to have very similar genes to the turtle and they aren't many giant turtle surviving in this world, not in that area of Vietnam. I'm not a geneticist so i might be wrong but I'm pretty sure it's not that easy.
However from my wildest imagination, maybe we could save some samples of the genes of these turtles for it's genomes to be sequence and in the future we may clone it and to add variations we could put pieces of genomes of other giant turtles.
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.