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PHNOM PENH - A colony of rare softshell turtles has been discovered in Cambodia during a survey of a former Khmer Rouge stronghold, raising hopes that the species can be saved from extinction.
The Cantor's giant softshell turtle, which grows to up to 2m in length and has jaws powerful enough to crush bone, was once found across southeast Asia. But poaching and loss of habitat have reduced its numbers, and it is now classified as an endangered species. It has a rubbery skin instead of an exterior shell.
The last sighting in the wild in Cambodia was in 2003, but conservationists surveying a stretch of the Mekong River found an 11kg female, which they captured and then freed. They also found eggs, which have since hatched. The hatchlings were released back into the wild last week.
The team from Conservation International and World Wildlife Fund, together with local enviromentalists, was studying an area that was one of the last bastions of Khmer Rouge guerrillas. It was closed to scientific exploration for years, and this was the first detailed study of the area, in Stung Treng province, about 160km north of Phnom Penh, since the late 1990s.
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