RIVER MONSTER ALERT

A MYSTERY creature that eats geese in the blink of an eye has returned to haunt murky waters around the £9billion Olympic Park.

Six years ago there were fears a crocodile was stalking big birds as they were sucked from a river’s surface – never to be seen again.

Some experts then suggested a giant turtle was the culprit, but before the riddle could be solved the killer monster apparently vanished.

Now it seems to be back. Mike Wells, a boat-dweller living on the River Lea in East London, was last week sitting on his barge with a friend when their peace was shattered.

Mike said: “We were just passing the time of day looking at a Canada goose 30 yards away, but then it just suddenly disappeared.

“It went down vertically. There wasn’t any hesitation, it went straight down. It didn’t come back up. My friend and I looked at each other slack-jawed.

“Being a river person, I pieced together what we’d seen in seconds. The goose was prey to something.

“A Canada goose is not a small bird. They weigh about 16lb, so whatever took it was also large.”

Searching for answers, Mike then came across several similar incidents from 2005 when there was speculation a crocodile might have taken up residence in the River Lea.

Mike now wants the Environment Agency to investigate. A campaigner against the 2012 Olympics’ impact on East London, he also joked: “My hope is Lord Coe will fall in and the creature will have him for lunch.”

By Ted Jeory

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/282001/River-monster-alert

Thousands cheer capture of revered Vietnam turtle (Via Herp Digest)

Thousands cheer capture of revered Vietnam turtle 4/4/ii Bangkok Post Thousands of onlookers cheered in central Hanoi on Sunday when rescuers captured for treatment an endangered and ailing giant turtle revered as a symbol of Vietnam's centuries-old independence struggle. A giant soft-shell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) which is considered a sacred symbol of Vietnamese independence is guided into a cage for a health check by handlers at Hoan Kiem lake in the heart of Hanoi. Thousands of onlookers cheered in central Hanoi when rescuers captured for treatment the ailing and ancient giant turtle.

On the first attempt to snare it in polluted Hoan Kiem Lake one month ago the feisty old animal broke free from a net.

This time about 50 rescuers took about two hours --- and three nets of varying sizes -- to finally bring the turtle under control. Some of the workers swam with the netted reptile, leading it into a cage which was escorted by two boats to an islet where its condition is to be assessed.

"This is one of the most endangered animals in the world and there's very little known about it," said Tim McCormack of the Asian Turtle Programme, a Hanoi-based conservation and research group. Local media reported that the critically endangered soft-shell turtle, which weighs about 200 kilograms (440 pounds), had been injured by fish hooks and small red-eared turtles which have appeared in the lake in recent years.

The animal's status in Vietnam stems from its history and its home in Hoan Kiem Lake (Lake of the Returned Sword), rather than its rarity. "It's very important culturally here," said McCormack.

In a story that is taught to all Vietnamese school children, the 15th century rebel leader Le Loi used a magical sword to drive out Chinese invaders and founded the dynasty named after him. Le Loi later became emperor and one day went boating on the lake. A turtle appeared, took his sacred sword and dived to the bottom, keeping the weapon safe for the next time Vietnam may have to defend its freedom, the story says.

The turtle has generally surfaced only rarely -- its sightings deemed auspicious -- but has been seen more often in recent months as concern mounted over its health. Its plight caught the attention of Hanoi's city government, which created a "Turtle Treatment Council" of experts led by a senior veterinarian in the agriculture department, Vietnam News Agency said.

McCormack said the animal, which is likely more than 100 years old, is one of only four Rafetus swinhoei turtles known to be in existence. Two are in China and one lives in another Hanoi-area lake, he said.

Vietnamese refer to Hoan Kiem's legendary resident as "great grandfather turtle", but its sex is unknown. The islet where it was to be examined holds a small temple-like structure called "Turtle Tower" that is commonly featured in tourist pictures. It will be held in a special tank with filtered water instead of soupy-green contaminated lake water.

"A lot of people have been saying the pollution in the lake has been a serious factor in the animal's health," said McCormack, whose organisation was among the experts advising authorities on how to help the creature.

Spectators hoped the treatment will succeed.

Nguyen Le Hoai, 31, said she spent all day lakeside waiting for the turtle's capture because it "is the symbol of the country, and the symbol of this lake".

Rescuers try to capture Hanoi's sacred turtle (Via HerpDigest)

Rescuers try to capture Hanoi's sacred turtle: Veterinarians want to treat legendary creature, believed to be suffering the effects of living in a polluted lake
3/9/12 Vietnam News

Hanoians cram around Hoan Kiem lake in a bid to catch a glimpse of the sacred giant turtle.
Thousands of Vietnamese jostled and climbed trees around a central Hanoi lake on Tuesday to watch rescuers attempt to save an ailing rare turtle revered by the nation as sacred.

Dozens of workers waded chest-deep through the chilly green water in Hoan Kiem lake to try to capture the giant freshwater creature for the first time so it could be treated. It is one of the world's most endangered turtles and one of only four known living in the world. In Vietnam many believe it is magical and that it helped a Vietnamese king fend off Chinese invaders nearly 600 years ago.

In recent days, photos of the turtle surfacing with pink open sores on its wrinkled neck and legs have sparked near panic among the public. Lesions were also visible on its shell. Some experts fear pollution in the lake is slowly killing the turtle, which is affectionately called "great-grandfather".
Last week, a small island in the lake was expanded with sandbags to form a platform large enough for the turtle to rest, complete with a little pond. Rescuers were hoping to coax it ashore but, when it did not emerge on its own, dozens of men waded into the water to try to gradually net the creature and drag it to the island. But even with the military involved in the rescue, the turtle managed to slip through the nets and escape.

"I'm really glad that I'm part of the rescue operation and, hopefully, it will bring luck to my family," said Nguyen Thanh Liem, 65, a retired army captain who helped pull the net along with dozens of other onlookers. "I wish that he would be immortal to bless our nation."

Liem, like many other Vietnamese, believes the Hoan Kiem turtle is the same mythical creature that helped King Le Loi defeat Chinese invaders in the mid-15th century with a magical sword given to him by the gods. After the victory, legend has it that a giant golden turtle arose from the lake and grabbed the sword in its mouth before diving to return it to its divine owners.

Experts, however, say the real creature is more likely to be aged between 80 and 100-plus years. Its sex remains unknown. It weighs about 440lb (200kg) and has a shell the size of a desk. There are only four turtles of the same species, Rafetus swinhoei, known to be alive in the world: one in another lake in Vietnam and two in a Chinese zoo.

Hundreds of Vietnamese people have worked around the clock to save the reptile by removing chunks of debris and pumping in fresh water into the lake, which is flooded with raw sewage and trash.
Once it is dragged to shore, veterinarians plan to take skin and shell samples for analysis, and later determine how to treat it.

Some gathered at Hoan Kiem lake, which translates as "Lake of the Returned Sword", worried that trying to wrangle the creature could do more harm than good.

"It's not safe to use the net to try to catch the turtle. It could worsen his wounds," said Nguyen Hung Cuong, a 19-year-old student. "The authorities should have allowed the turtle to crawl to the island by itself where they can give him treatment."

Expert Rejects Claim to Iconic Turtle in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake (Via HerpDigest)

Expert Rejects Claim to Iconic Turtle in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake (Rafetus ssp)
Hanoi - VNS-9/10/10

An expert is discounting rumours that the giant turtle living in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake was wounded recently by a fisherman.

The rumour became widespread after an internet website began running a video clip in which a young man appeared to be casting a fishing line towards the giant turtle when it surfaced on the lake on March 12.

Though the video clip did not make it clear that the hooks had hit the turtle, the fishing line became taut and broken. The young man could then be seen rewinding the remainder of the line with his fishing rod.

News about the giant turtle being attacked has recently hit the headlines in the local print media, with a least one paper putting an image on its front page of the turtle laying inside the Tortoise Tower, with a caption suggesting the wounded turtle had taken shelter there out of the sun. The photo was allegedly taken on August 1.

Turtle expert Ha Dinh Duc affirmed that illegal fishing had been a danger to the giant turtle for years as the turtle's shell was already deeply scarred. But he was doubtful of any new wound such as the newspapers were reporting.

A fishing hook did not represent a significant danger to the giant turtle, he said, although it might have torn a piece of its soft shell.

Instead, Duc said he was concerned about the existing wounds, including a fairly deep hole which could be the trace of a strong beating.

The head of the Hoan Kiem Lake management board, Nguyen Minh Tuan, affirmed that the giant turtle had not been seen on the Tortoise Tower island since 2007, although it has resurfaced on the lake many times.

The Asian Tortoise Preservation Programme has called the Hoan Kien turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) one of the rarest species of tortoise in the world. On-line newspapers Dan Tri and VNMedia have reported that there were only four known in the world, including two in Viet Nam: one in Hoan Kiem Lake and the other in Dong Mo Lake, plus two others in a Chinese zoo.

Dr Le Duc Minh of the Natural Resources and Environment Research Centre at the Ha Noi National University has also confirmed that the Hoan Kiem and Dong Mo turtles were of the Rafetus swinhoei species.

Duc, who has been tracking the Hoan Kiem turtle for over a decade, disagreed.
"In November 2008, Hoan Kiem tortoise was caught and I found that it was not a member of the Rafetus swinhoei species," said Duc. "I named it Rafetus leloii."

The Hoan Kiem lake turtle was itself not born in the lake but introduced into it, probably from Thanh Hoa, he said, adding that the Dong Mo turtle had many yellow spots and a different head than the Hoan Kiem turtle and that it would be impossible to breed them.

Legend has it that a king turned a magical sword called Heaven's Will over to the golden turtle god in the lake. Based on this legend, Hoan Kiem Lake means "Lake of the Returned Sword" or "Lake of the Restored Sword". It also explains the name of the tower built on a tiny island in the lake.

Expert Rejects Claim to Iconic Turtle in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake (Via HerpDigest)

Expert Rejects Claim to Iconic Turtle in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake (Rafetus ssp)
Hanoi - VNS-9/10/10

An expert is discounting rumours that the giant turtle living in Ha Noi's Hoan Kiem Lake was wounded recently by a fisherman.

The rumour became widespread after an internet website began running a video clip in which a young man appeared to be casting a fishing line towards the giant turtle when it surfaced on the lake on March 12.

Though the video clip did not make it clear that the hooks had hit the turtle, the fishing line became taut and broken. The young man could then be seen rewinding the remainder of the line with his fishing rod.

News about the giant turtle being attacked has recently hit the headlines in the local print media, with a least one paper putting an image on its front page of the turtle laying inside the Tortoise Tower, with a caption suggesting the wounded turtle had taken shelter there out of the sun. The photo was allegedly taken on August 1.

Turtle expert Ha Dinh Duc affirmed that illegal fishing had been a danger to the giant turtle for years as the turtle's shell was already deeply scarred. But he was doubtful of any new wound such as the newspapers were reporting.

A fishing hook did not represent a significant danger to the giant turtle, he said, although it might have torn a piece of its soft shell.

Instead, Duc said he was concerned about the existing wounds, including a fairly deep hole which could be the trace of a strong beating.

The head of the Hoan Kiem Lake management board, Nguyen Minh Tuan, affirmed that the giant turtle had not been seen on the Tortoise Tower island since 2007, although it has resurfaced on the lake many times.

The Asian Tortoise Preservation Programme has called the Hoan Kien turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) one of the rarest species of tortoise in the world. On-line newspapers Dan Tri and VNMedia have reported that there were only four known in the world, including two in Viet Nam: one in Hoan Kiem Lake and the other in Dong Mo Lake, plus two others in a Chinese zoo.

Dr Le Duc Minh of the Natural Resources and Environment Research Centre at the Ha Noi National University has also confirmed that the Hoan Kiem and Dong Mo turtles were of the Rafetus swinhoei species.

Duc, who has been tracking the Hoan Kiem turtle for over a decade, disagreed.
"In November 2008, Hoan Kiem tortoise was caught and I found that it was not a member of the Rafetus swinhoei species," said Duc. "I named it Rafetus leloii."

The Hoan Kiem lake turtle was itself not born in the lake but introduced into it, probably from Thanh Hoa, he said, adding that the Dong Mo turtle had many yellow spots and a different head than the Hoan Kiem turtle and that it would be impossible to breed them.

Legend has it that a king turned a magical sword called Heaven's Will over to the golden turtle god in the lake. Based on this legend, Hoan Kiem Lake means "Lake of the Returned Sword" or "Lake of the Restored Sword". It also explains the name of the tower built on a tiny island in the lake.

Fearsome giant turtles found in Pacific cemetery (via Chad Arment)

Emma Young August-17-2010

WITH THEIR HORNED HEADS and spiked shells, giant turtles that once lived on the Pacific island of Efate in Vanuatu may have looked fearsome, but they were easy prey for settlers, says a new study.

People shared the island with these giant land-dwelling turtles for at least two centuries, but eventually wiped them out, according to research published today by researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

"I don't think the people would ever have contemplated that the resource was limited - subsistence hunters eat whatever they encounter if they can catch it the world over," says lead author Dr Trevor Worthy. "Many peoples in the Pacific still have little concept of conservation, which is something only the wealthy first-world nations have recently embraced."

Macabre practice
People first arrived on Efate, the main island in Vanuatu, about 3000 years ago. Matthew Spriggs and Stuart Bedford of the Australian National University, Canberra, who worked with Worthy, found middens - mounds of waste - dating from about 200 years after that. These middens contained the remains of at least 30 of the giant turtles, dumped, somewhat macabrely, on top of the graves of the first settlers.

"It is the first time this family of turtles has been shown to have met with humans and there are many turtle bones in the middens," says Trevor. "Initial excavations in 2004 by the ANU team revealed that the first use of the site was as a cemetery and provided the first real opportunity in more than 50 years of research to describe a group of Lapita people and glean insights into their ritual and mortuary practices."

This particular species of land turtle is new to science, but the remains very closely resemble those of other extinct giant turtles (known as meiolaniid turtles) from Lord Howe Island, NSW, for example.

While the team don't have skulls from Vanuatu, they think the new turtle probably shared the horns, as well as the knobby tail, of its close relatives. The beasts were big, with shells up to one metre long. However, their horns meant they were unable to retract their heads into the shells, making them more vulnerable to hunters.

Systematic killing
The team don't know how many of the turtles lived on the island before people arrived, but the settlers probably systematically killed and ate the animals, says Trevor. While this is the first evidence that people ever overlapped in time and space with giant turtle species, other giant turtle fossils have been found in New Caledonia and Viti Levu in Fiji, showing the animals were widespread in the Pacific.

As they went extinct only recently, studies of middens or recent beach deposits on other islands might unearth more species, says Trevor. "We are likely to be able to learn much more about this enigmatic family if we explore the palaeofaunas of islands similar to Efate," he says.

"This is a remarkable find, and adds the horned tortoises to the list of charismatic megafauna that has gone extinct in Australasia and the Pacific during the Holocene," comments Dr Arthur Georges, an expert on the evolution of turtles at the University of Canberra.

It's hard to know exactly what drove the turtles to extinction, say the researchers. The settlers also cleared land, and brought pigs with them, both of which could have helped speed the turtles' demise.

On other islands, such as Fiji, rising sea levels seem to have contributed to the extinction of horned turtles, adds Gilbert Price, who researches extinctions at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. Gilbert says the research is "one of the few studies that have shown a significant crossover between humans and extinct megafauna, not just for Vanuatu, but the southwest Pacific more broadly."

The research is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/fearsome-giant-turtles-found-in-pacific-cemetery.htm