Thousands of endangered tortoises have been rescued in Madagascar after their sanctuary was flooded

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A community in southern Madagascar has rallied to rescue thousands of endangered tortoises that have been washed away from their habitat and left swimming as a result of this month’s flooding caused by a tropical cyclone.

The 12,000 tortoises living at Lavavolo Tortoise Center were taken from illegal wildlife traffickers but faced new and unexpected hardships when Cyclone Dikeledi hit the southern part of the Indian Ocean island in mid-January. Floodwaters 1 meter (3.2 feet) high covered the sanctuary, and the turtles – many of which were whippers in the turtle world at around 25-50 years old – were taken.

Sanctuary staff, members of the public and even the police joined together in the rescue mission, wading through the water with large containers to collect the confused turtles. Some rescuers have turned damaged buildings into rafts for the turtles to ride on as they wander around to find others.

Mr. Hery Razafimamonjiraibe, who is the director of the Turtle Survival Alliance in Madagascar, which manages the area, said they hope to have rescued more than 10,000 turtles, although they have yet to officially count them. That’s not easy, he said, since turtles can move faster than you think if they like and rarely cooperate.

The rescuers have found about 700 dead turtles so far, Razafimamonjiraibe said they were trapped by stones and debris in the floods.

“Fortunately, most of the turtles were able to float,” said Razafimamonjiraibe. “Turtles are actually good swimmers,” he added. “You should see them.”

Although many of the turtles have been returned to the sanctuary, the flooding has affected the facility which has lost its infrastructure, said the Turtle Survival Alliance.

The Lavavolo Tortoise Center underwent major renovations in 2018 when authorities seized a group of 10,000 tortoises from wildlife traffickers and needed a place to keep them. Other seized turtles arrived later.

Most of the turtles at Lavavolo are radiated turtles, native to Madagascar and the nearby islands of Reunion and Mauritius. They usually grow to 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) tall but are long lived and can reach 100 years or more.

British explorer Captain James Cook is believed to have given the royal family of Tonga a tortoise as a gift in 1777. It is reported that the turtle died in 1966 at the age of 188.

Radiant tortoises and spiders are critically endangered in Madagascar due to habitat destruction and poaching. They are edible, but they are also illegally smuggled to be sold as pets because of the yellow and black colors of their shells, said Razafimamonjiraibe.

There were once tens of millions of loggerhead turtles in Madagascar, says the Turtle Alliance, but their numbers have declined dramatically and they have disappeared from 65% of their natural habitat.

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