The Madagascar Tortoise Crisis

The radiated tortoise may be extinct in 20 years, according to one estimate. The picture isn't much better for four other tortoise and turtle species on Madagascar, as a new report states that political instability has opened the way for armed militias to poach 1,000 tortoises – every week. Take a look at the effort to save these species from extinction.

By Dan Shapley

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radiated tortoise
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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The Turtle Survival Alliance and the Wildlife Conservation Society warn that this tortoise, the radiated tortoise of Madagascar, is "rapidly nearing extinction" due to the illegal pet and meat trade. The species has just 20 years left, they predicted, if interventions aren't successful. The dire conclusion comes after a field survey in Madagascar's spiny forest, which was once rife with tortoises; poachers have carted off truckloads of turtles and turtle meat, leaving an empty landscape akin to the American plains after the near-extermination of the bison.

"Areas where scores of radiated tortoises could be seen just a few years ago have been poached clean," said James Deutsch, director of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Africa Program. "Back then one could hardly fathom that this beautiful tortoise could ever become endangered, but such is the world we live in, and things can – and do – change rapidly."

Researchers say several factors contribute to the staggering decline of tortoise: years of extreme drought, which has sapped farm production; lack of enforcement against poachers, exacerbated by political instability; and loss of forest habitat to both farmers and invasive species.

To bring attention to the issue, The Daily Green is republishing this feature, with updated information about the plight of this beautiful tortoise.

A radiated turtle
Julie Larsen Maher
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Radiated Tortoise

The radiated tortoise, seen here in Tsimanampetsotsa National Park, is one of Madagascar's five critically endangered tortoises. Four other turtles and tortoises are in decline. Like much of Madagascar's wildlife, radiated tortoises live nowhere else.

Biodiversity hotspots like Madagascar are increasingly the focus of conservation, as the world tries to halt an extinction crisis that scientists believe is the first in the geologic record to be caused by one species, humans.

Radiated tortoise in Madagascar landscape
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Radiated Tortoise

When Madagascar drifted away from Africa some 165 million years ago, wildlife on the island spun off on its own unique evolutionary path, producing the world's only lemurs, as well as dozens of amphibian, bird and reptile species found nowhere else on earth, including the radiated tortoise seen here at Cap St Marie, the southernmost part of Madagascar.
Two radiated tortoises on sand in Madagascar
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Radiated Tortoises

Radiated tortoises like these live in the dry southern part of Madagascar, where they feed on plants. Like many other species of turtles and tortoises, they live long and grow big -- up to 16 inches across and 35 pounds. But they reproduce late in life, making them particularly susceptible to threats that kill mature breeders, or young before they reach breeding age.
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Radiated Tortoise

Conservationists are studying and seeking to protect species like the radiated tortoise, seen here being weighed by Rijasoa Fanazava in Madagascar. The illegal pet trade, along with hunting and habitat loss, are sending at least nine of Madagascar's native turtles and tortoises toward extinction.
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Madagascar Scientists

The Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups are working with communities in Madagascar to avoid unsustainable hunting and habitat loss that could doom several species of tortoises and turtles. They have proposed a "turtle brigade" to crack down on the illegal pet trade.
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Spider Tortoise

Spider tortoises are one of the critically endangered turtles and tortoises of Madagascar. Like the ploughshare, flat-tailed and juvenile radiated tortoises, spider tortoises are coveted by collectors and traded as pets on the international black market.
Julie Larsen Maher
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madagascar-river

Local people in Madagascar hunt and eat turtles and tortoises, but many are also sold on international markets illegally. In China, a single radiated tortoise can fetch $50, due in part to purported aphrodisiac properties. When caught, radiated tortoises scream high-pitched cries that would scare off natural predators, but don't deter poachers.
Julie Larsen Maher / Wildlife Conservation Society
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Radiated Tortoise

Conservationists say there is still hope for the endangered turtles and tortoises of Madagascar, but not without swift action to crack down on illegal pet and food trade, stop habitat loss, and bolster wild populations with those born in zoos.
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