The Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle used to live in the Red River in China and in many parts of Vietnam in the flood plain from the Yangtze River. It became endangered because humans built roads, buildings and dams where the turtle likes to live and because of pollution. It also became endangered because people would catch the turtle to eat it and its eggs and to sell turtles as pets. Illegal hunters also catch the turtle to sell its body parts as ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. 