A community in southern Madagascar has pulled together to save thousands of critically endangered tortoises swept away from their sanctuary and left swimming for their lives in floods this month caused by a tropical cyclone.
The 12,000 radiated and spider tortoises that were housed at the Lavavolo Tortoise Center had been confiscated from illegal wildlife traffickers, but faced a new and unexpected ordeal when Cyclone Dikeledi hit the southern part of the Indian Ocean island this month.
A meter-high flood waters engulfed the sanctuary, and the tortoises — many of them mere whippersnappers in the tortoise world at about 25 to 50 years old — were carried away.
Photo: Lavavolo Tortoise Center via AP
Sanctuary staff, members of the community and even police officers joined together in a rescue operation, wading through the water with large containers to collect the bewildered tortoises. Some rescuers converted damaged building structures into makeshift rafts for the tortoises to ride on as they moved around to find others.
Hery Razafimamonjiraibe, the Madagascar director for the Turtle Survival Alliance, which runs the sanctuary, said they were optimistic that they had saved more than 10,000 tortoises, although they still had to do an official count.
That is not easy, he said, as tortoises can move faster than you think when they want to and rarely cooperate.
The rescuers had recovered about 700 dead tortoises so far, which Razafimamonjiraibe said were trapped by rocks and debris in the floods.
“Fortunately, most of the tortoises were able to float,” Razafimamonjiraibe said.
“Tortoises are actually very good swimmers,” he added. “You should see them.”
While most of the tortoises have been returned to the sanctuary, the floods were a blow to the center, which has lost much of its infrastructure, the Turtle Survival Alliance said.
Lavavolo Tortoise Center underwent a major renovation in 2018 when authorities seized a group of 10,000 radiated tortoises from wildlife traffickers and needed somewhere to keep them. More confiscated tortoises arrived later.
Most of the tortoises at Lavavolo are radiated tortoises, which are native to Madagascar. They generally grow to about 30cm in length, but are long-lived and can reach 100 years or more.
British explorer Captain James Cook is believed to have given a radiated tortoise to the Tongan royal family as a gift in 1777. The tortoise reportedly died in 1966 at the age of 188.
Radiated and spider tortoises are critically endangered in Madagascar because of habitat destruction and poaching. They are eaten, but also illegally trafficked to be sold as pets because of the striking yellow and black markings on their shells, Razafimamonjiraibe said.
There were once tens of millions of radiated tortoises in Madagascar, the Turtle Alliance said, but their numbers have been drastically reduced, and they have disappeared from 65 percent of their natural habitat.
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS