ONLY 3 REMAIN

Submitted by ub on

And then there were three. Forget the monkey, there are few “Great Grandfather Turtles,” making rare public appearances.

Its dark gray-brown headed 4-foot-long (1.2-meter-long) beast, seemingly struggling to breathe.

The stately Cu Rua (pronounced “koo zu-ah”), which was estimated to be more than a hundred years old, has become a distinguished citizen.

Between the 1970s and 1990s, hunting devastated populations throughout China’s Yangtze River and Vietnam’s Red River valleys. Urban development has also damaged the species.

Now the species has dwindled to three. A male and female live in captivity, but the two haven't yet mated.

The species is so elusive that determining sex is difficult, and no one knows whether it's a male or female,

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