Vietnam scientists urge authorities to protect turtle of legend

Vietnamese scientists on Tuesday urged Hanoi authorities to wipe out an invasive species of turtles that is threatening endangered local species, including Hoan Kiem Lake\'s legendary inhabitant.

\'Hanoi\'s authorities need to make a plan to kill these invaders because if there are no timely and proper measures, red-eared turtles would eat all foods of our native turtle,\' said professor Ha Dinh Duc, an expert on the species. \'They even eat all plants in the lake, and the lake would not be green anymore.\'

Amid the horn-honking hustle of Vietnam\'s capital, Hoan Kiem Lake is an oasis of relative calm that attracts tourists and locals alike, the luckiest of whom catch a glimpse of its 300-kilogram Ho Guom turtle, which is its most famous resident.

Turtles are important in Vietnamese culture, particularly the Ho Guom turtle. It is reclusive and rare and considered holy because of a 15th-century legend that claims King Le Loi drove out invading Chinese with a magical sword, which the gods gave him and which he later returned by giving it to the lake\'s turtle, which swam it back to the gods.

It could be as many as 300 years old and might be the last of its kind in Hoan Kiem Lake. The turtle sometimes pokes its human-sized head above the green water on important days in Vietnam. Such an occurrence is considered propitious.

However, red-eared turtles indigenous to the United States are now flourishing in the fabled lake.

Many Hanoians release them into Hoan Kiem for good luck during occasions that include the Tet New Year, creating the problem, said Pham Dinh Quyen, general secretary of the Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment.

\'We have many times raised our concerns, asking the Hanoi government to take measures to deal with these red-eared turtles,\' the state-run newspaper Tien Phong on Tuesday quoted Professor Dang Huy Huynh, chairman of the Vietnam Zoological Association, as saying.

Tien Phong did not report the city\'s response to Huynh.