Photo by Dušan veverkolog on Unsplash (illustrative)
By December 2024, the Turtle Survival Alliance had released about 4,000 radiated tortoises into the spiny forest of Madagascar's Androy region, as part of a massive rewilding effort that began in 2023. The animals come from more than 24,000 tortoises confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade, most of them in two huge seizures in 2018.
Key facts
The group plans to return 20,000 tortoises to the wild over the following five years.
Tortoises first spend time in soft-release enclosures and are tracked with GPS and radio tags after release.
Wild males have been seen courting released females, an early sign the animals are blending into the wild population.
Poaching for meat and the pet trade cut radiated tortoise numbers by about 80% over two decades.
Why it matters
Biologists have warned that the radiated tortoise could vanish within 20 years without intervention. Returning rescued animals to forests where local Tandroy and Mahafaly communities hold a traditional taboo against harming tortoises gives the species a real chance to recover.
Worth noting
It is too early to know whether released tortoises will breed successfully and whether their young will survive. Poaching, forest clearing for farming and charcoal, and the cost of caring for over 24,000 rescued animals remain major challenges.