Two pets found on island in Vietnam turn out to be critically endangered species (2025)

On a small island off the coast of Vietnam, a cow herder paused near a rice field and noticed a brown and yellow creature hidden under the grass. He picked up the animal and decided to keep it as a pet.

It turned out to be a critically endangered species and a first-of-its-kind sighting.

Scientists visited Hon Lao Island in 2015 and 2022 as part of a turtle conservation project with the Asian Turtle Program of Indo-Myanmar Conservation, according to a study published April 25 in the peer-reviewed journal Check List. Their goal was to survey the island’s turtles and potential turtle habitats.

During the visits, researchers met two residents with pet turtles who let them photograph and analyze the animals, the study said. To the team’s surprise — and excitement — the pets turned out to be Vietnamese pond turtles, a critically endangered species.

Scientifically known as Mauremys annamensis, Vietnamese pond turtles are freshwater reptiles “found only in the densely populated coastal lowlands of a few provinces of central Vietnam,” according to the Asian Turtle Program. The species is “heavily hunted for sale into the wildlife trade” and, in 2006, was found in the wild for the first time “in over 67 years.”

Photos show the two Vietnamese pond turtles found on Hon Lao Island.

The larger turtle weighed just under 2 pounds and was found by a cow herder in 2015 “near a rice field at the mountain’s foot,” the study said. “Based on the information obtained from the owner and our observation of suitable habitat, it can be inferred that the turtle was collected from the wild.”

The smaller turtle weighed about 11 ounces and was “picked up in a small stream” in 2022, researchers said.

The pets are the first known record of the species on Hon Lao Island, but the discovery suggest the species naturally occurs on the island, the study said.

Researchers suggested further surveys of the island, the expansion of a nearby protected area to include the turtle’s preferred wetland habitat and, potentially, the reintroduction of some animals to “restock this natural population.”

The wild population of Vietnamese pond turtles on Hon Lao Island is one of — “if not the last” of — the species’ few remaining natural habitats, the study said.

Hon Lao Island is about 10 miles off the coast of Vietnam and roughly 375 miles northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. A video shared on YouTube by the Thinking Nomads shows one of the islands in the surrounding Cu Lao Cham Archipelago.

The research team included Luan Thanh Nguyen, Tuyet-Dzung Thi Tran, Sanh Cong Phan, Thomas Ziegler, Minh Le and Timothy McCormack.