“Even if we get just one or two hatchlings, I will be very happy,” said Gerald Kuchling, a project leader for the Turtle Survival Alliance, a nonprofit conservation organization. “Even a single one would give hope for the recovery of this magnificent animal. It would be a turn.”

Quite a turn, actually. The Yangtze giant softshell turtle — thought to be the largest freshwater turtle in the world — was once common in the Yangtze and Red Rivers. But by the late 1990s, pollution, hunting, dams and development had driven it to the brink of extinction.

There are only four known specimens remaining, and only one female — an 85-year-old resident of the Suzhou Zoo. For years, biologists have been trying to coax her and her 100-year-old mate to produce hatchlings. So far the pair have disappointed scientists, with the female laying clutch after clutch of unfertilized eggs.

When confronted by an oncoming truck on Thursday, an alligator in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana, refused to back down. Instead, the reptile went on the attack, and proceeded to tear off the truck's entire front bumper.

"I was coming home from my camp when an alligator crossed my path," the driver of the truck told Jukin Media, a video licensing and production company. "I honestly thought he would back up and run the other way, when he did the exact opposite."

“When our amphibian species start disappearing, there’s a problem,” said senior zookeeper Noah Shields. “This is not just another animal that may be going extinct here in Indiana. This is a very, very important species.”

Found in the Blue River in southern Indiana, and in rivers from Arkansas to New York, the Hellbender species is millions of years old. Recently, however, they are starting to disappear. Purdue associate professor Rod Williams has been leading the charge to preserve the species, which is now considered endangered in Indiana.

“They’re very sensitive to changes in the environment,” Williams said. “Hellbenders are also a very long lived amphibian. They can live 30 years in the wild. So when you have a really long-lived animal that starts to decline in the wild at a very rapid rate, it’s cause for concern that there’s something going on in the environment.”

Since then more than 400 dead turtles have shown up. Dozens more sick turtles were also recovered, each of which was lethargic, emaciated and covered in infected lesions in their eyes, skin and even internal organs.

None of the infected turtles survived.

The 60-kilometer river is the only home to the Bellinger River snapping turtle (Elsaya georgesi), a rare but little-studied species that has already been on the decline for years due to pollution and predation by invasive foxes. Scientists now fear that this mysterious, as-yet-unidentified disease has reached 90 percent of the turtle’s habitat and could cause the species’s imminent extinction.