Hà Đình Đức, Hanoi's turtle guardian, dies
Zoologist Hà Đình Đức, known as 'Professor Turtle' for his decades of work with Hanoi's legendary giant softshell turtle, died August 7th 2026 at age 86.
Zoologist Hà Đình Đức, known across Hanoi as 'Professor Turtle', died on August 7th 2026. He was 86 years old.
His life's work centered on a single animal: the giant softshell turtle of Hồ Gươm, the Lake of the Returned Sword in central Hanoi. According to a report from Mongabay, an encounter with the turtle on March 15th 1991 created what he described as an "invisible bond" that changed his life's course. A research project gave him initial reason to study it. When that ended, he continued for a quarter-century, photographing the turtle, recording its appearances, and worrying about its health.
The turtle as legend
For Đức, the animal was inseparable from a 15th-century legend. The story holds that Lê Lợi led a rebellion that drove Ming forces from Vietnam with a magical sword. After victory, a golden turtle surfaced on the lake to reclaim the sword for its divine owner. The lake was renamed Hồ Hoàn Kiếm, the Lake of the Returned Sword. Đức saw the survival of a giant turtle in the same waters as making the old story tangible. He called the animal the lake's "soul".
Very few of these enormous freshwater turtles survived. Little was known about the individual in Hồ Gươm. Đức traveled Vietnam looking for other turtles that might be related. He hoped descendants might keep the association between turtle and legend alive for another generation.
Advocacy and conflict
His advocacy often brought him into conflict with Hanoi officials. Proposals to dredge the lake or build around it could draw objections from Đức if he felt the turtle had not been considered. He argued scientists had a responsibility to ask what might happen to the animal before work began. Pollution was a constant worry.
In 2011, when the elderly turtle developed lesions and required capture for treatment, Đức was at the lake almost daily. The turtle died in 2016. Đức continued his concern for Hồ Gươm afterward. He spoke out about development around the lake and searched for other giant softshell turtles elsewhere in Vietnam. His death marks the end of a unique, decades-long vigil for a single wild animal and the legend it embodied.
