Important turtle eggs found at Nordens Ark

Yesterday, International Turtle Day was celebrated around the world and in honor of the day, five eggs of the Vietnamese pond turtles were found at Nordens Ark.

-It's both exciting and important, says Jimmy Helgesson, responsible keeper for the turtles at Nordens Ark. We’re the only facility in Europe that’s been allowed to propagate Vietnamese pond turtles this year and the fact that it succeeded is amazing.

The reason that these two turtles were the only ones allowed to mate is because their genes are extra important. Both are originally born in the wild and are thus not related to the other pond turtles in the breeding population.

Just over 35 years ago, both the male and female were captured in Vietnam and sold as pets, a common and major threat to many of the world's endangered turtle species. For 25 years, they were kept as pets in the Netherlands before being handed over to the conservation project and ending up on Nordens Ark.

-Today there are almost no Vietnamese pond turtles left in the wild, Jimmy continues, but here at Nordens Ark we are working to save the species from disappearing completely and we now have one of the largest breeding groups in Europe.

After several mating attempts the female finally laid five beautiful eggs, and all seems to be fertilized. We are eagerly awaiting their hatching in just over 100 days to give new hope to the survival of the Vietnamese pond turtle.