Benjamin Leprince

• Head of Department at TURTLE SANCTUARY

Camera traps are widely used for terrestrial wildlife monitoring but remain underutilized for aquatic species due to inherent challenges in freshwater environments. Freshwater turtles, particularly the critically endangered Swinhoe’s softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), are notoriously difficult to observe in the wild. Here, we present a novel floa...

1. Next to cetaceans and megafishes, freshwater turtles are the most iconic endangered freshwater species. 2. A detailed questionnaire survey conducted with more than 100 individuals from fishing communities in northern Vietnam was used to investigate the current status of Southeast Asian turtles and provides new hope concerning the survival of Raf...

We conducted a comprehensive threat analysis of the Swinhoe’s softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), the most endangered freshwater turtle in the world, historically occurring along river systems in Vietnam and China, but currently almost extinct. Here, our goal was to identify the pressures along two main rivers in Vietnam (Black and Red rivers, bot...

We conducted a comprehensive threat analysis of the Swinhoe's softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), the most endangered freshwater turtle in the world, historically occurring along river systems in Vietnam and China, but currently almost extinct. Here, our goal was to identify the pressures along two main rivers in Vietnam (Black and Red rivers, bot...

The Asian box turtles of the Cuora galbinifrons complex (C. galbinifrons, C. bourreti, and C. picturata) rank among the most endangered chelonian species in the world. Despite several previous studies, the phylogenetic relationships and species boundaries of this complex remain a matter for dispute due to a shortage of field-collected samples for g...

Very little is known of the ecology and distribution of Vietnamese tortoises and freshwater turtles, even though Vietnam is one of the world’s hotspots of chelonian diversity and, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), almost all its species are threatened. We report the diversity of chelonians for two distinct...

Most of the extraordinary biodiversity richness of SouthEast Asian countries is concentrated in the national parks and other Protected Areas, with species-rich turtle communities surviving mostly in these reserves where their natural habitats are better preserved. However, very few studies have documented the turtle species richness of the various...

According to the IUCN, Southeast Asia is the area of the world with the highest number of threatened turtle species. The current status of chelonians is particularly catastrophic in Vietnam. However, there is still a lack of field data to unambiguously support this fact for a few species. To better understand the freshwater turtle diversity and eve...

Nowadays, Laos remains one of the scientifically least known countries of Asia in terms of herpetological knowledge. Here, we evaluate composition of species in freshwater ecosystems (main river courses) and terrestrial ecosystems (forests) in two distinct regions using Visual Encounter Surveys along designed transects, examination of fishers’ catc...

The snake communities in Asian tropical forests are relatively unknown, with most studies focusing on species lists. We investigated species composition, relative abundance, and community ecology of snakes in a mature secondary hilly forest area in the Quan Son District, northern Vietnam. To our knowledge, it is one of the few field investigations...

Rafetus swinhoei is a giant freshwater turtle (>160 kg) and is the rarest turtle species in 30 the world, with just two individuals surviving in Vietnam and China (only one in the wild). Being on the brink of extinction, it is an absolute priority to search for additional individuals in the wild, and for new areas of potential presence. Here we ana...

The Cát Bà gecko Goniurosaurus catbaensis is endemic to Cát Bà and Ha Long islands of Vietnam. The ecology of this species is still scarcely studied but previous reports have suggested that the species is Endangered due to small population size and low ecological plasticity. We studied aspects of the ecology of this species between May 2019 and Jun...

Gia Lai bent-toed gecko (Cyrtodactylus gialaiensis) was firstly described in 2017, and is an endemic species with very restricted distributional range, estimated to be less than 10 km2 in coffee plantation in Gia Lai province, Central Highland of Vietnam. This species is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) in the IUCN Red List. To date, the natura...

Almost all Asian turtle species are considered threatened by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). We investigated the turtle fauna and their distribution in hilly forests in northern Vietnam (Tam Thanh commune, Quan Son district) during two consecutive periods (12th to 23th May, 12th to 24th August 2019). These forests are of the Subtropical Moist...

Rafetus swinhoei is the world's most threatened turtle with only two known specimens remaining, with high probability both males. The species is therefore on the brink of extinction and discovering new individuals in the wild is crucial for the survival of the entire species. Despite the almost-extinct status, field research aimed at locating new i...

1. Next to cetaceans and megafishes, freshwater turtles are the most endangered iconic freshwater species. 2. A detailed questionnaire survey conducted with more than 100 individuals from northern Vietnam fishing communities was used to investigate the current status of South-East Asian turtles and provides new hope concerning the survival of Rafet...

Rafetus swinhoei is the world's most threatened turtle with only two known specimens remaining, with high probability both males. The species is therefore on the brink of extinction and discovering new individuals in the wild is crucial for the survival of the entire species. Despite the almost-extinct status, field research aimed at locating new i...

Breeding turtles in farms for offering them in the food market is a profitable market in Vietnam. Here we study, through structured questionnaires with 73 owners of turtle farms, the social and economic contexts of this business activity. We also collected ecological data for the most intensely bred species, the Wattle-necked softshell turtle (Pale...

1. Rafetus swinhoei, a giant softshell turtle from southern China and northern Vietnam, is the rarest turtle species on Earth, and only 2 individuals are known worldwide (1 in the wild). There is very little ecological information for this, and the remnant distribution remains completely unknown. 2. In this paper, we report for the first time in th...

Asian box turtles (genus Cuora; Geoemydidae) are among the most threatened Asian turtles. Here, we present (i) field investigation, in 2014-2018, on the Cuora individuals traded by high-level traders in six provinces of Vietnam and (ii) on the estimated numbers of traded individuals by interviews with traders. In addition, we (iii) provide an analy...

Vietnam is one the most biodiverse countries of the world in terms of turtle species richness, with 27 species being freshwater and terrestrial. The natural history of these species is very little known, but it is thought that the great majority of them are seriously threatened by habitat loss and overhunting. Here, we report on a survey employing...

Trade of turtles, for both food and pet, represents a substantial business in Vietnam, especially because this country is a cross-bridge for wildlife trade from Indochina to China. Vietnam is also one of the main countries worldwide in terms of the number of Facebook members, and a considerable portion of the business has gone online through Facebo...

Succeeding in keeping and breeding Platysternon megacephalum - big-head-turtles in captivity. 1: Biology - Habitat 2: Husbandry in captivity 3: process of reproduction 4:process of incubation 5: captive husbandry of the juveniles 6: Relative description of subspecies

Exploration on the field of Cuora bourreti , Cuora picturata population in remaining forest sanctuary of central Vietnam. Description of the Cuora picturata and Cuora bourreti habitat.