500 tortoises saved in Madagascar

This video says about itself:

Tortoises in Trouble

16 May 2012

The Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA), in collaboration with The Orianne Society (TOS), hired noted South Africa-based wildlife film makers Moz Images to cover the rapidly worsening crisis with Madagascar‘s Radiated Tortoise. The film crew of Chris Scarfe and Aaron Gekoski accompanied Rick Hudson and Christina Castellano to Madagascar in September 2011 and the resulting short film – Tortoises in Trouble – tracks a group of 140 confiscated Radiated Tortoises from the captital city of Antanananrivo to their homeland in the south where they are repatriated to a sacred protected forest near the village of Ampotoka. To donate to the TSA’s programs in Madagascar, please visit here.

From Wildlife Extra:

500 tortoises saved from pet trade in Madagascar

More than 500 tortoises have been confiscated at Ivato airport in Antananarivo, Madagascar prior to being loaded on a Kenya Aiways flight to Nairobi. The shipment included 512 radiated tortoises (Astrochelys radiata) and nine ploughshare tortoises (Astrochelys yniphora), all of which have been placed with the Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) for initial care and safe keeping.

The critically-endangered ploughshare tortoises (it is estimated that there are just 200 mature tortoises left in the wild) continue to be targeted by wildlife smugglers and it is expected they will be extinct within 10 years.Herilala Randriamahazo, director of TSA Madagascar said: “the trafficking activity is always well-organized and the smuggler spends no more than two days in town, arriving one day and departing two days later. This indicates that someone is holding the animals in Tana until the smuggler comes for them.”

Tortoises master touchscreen technology: here.