In the garden of her home in Hue, Vietnam, Phan Thi Hong Van noticed something that did not fit: a small turtle, weighing less than half a kilo, with perfectly circular spots on the back of its head that looked like two extra eyes staring right at her. 👀 Instead of ignoring it or keeping it, she did what few would do: she called the forest rangers.
What Van had found was a Sacalia quadriocellata, known precisely as the four-eyed turtle because of those very distinctive markings. It is an endangered species listed by the IUCN, threatened mainly by the illegal trade in exotic animals. It lives in streams and small ponds in the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos, and China — and seeing it appear in a residential yard is extraordinarily rare. 🐢
Authorities from the North Huong River Forest Protection Unit coordinated the rescue on site, assessed the animal, and released it safely into its natural habitat. And that same week, another Hue resident voluntarily turned over a yellow-headed box turtle, classified at the highest level of protection for Vietnamese wildlife. Two neighbors, two rescues, one same week. ✨