1000 rare tortoises poached each week in Madagascar wildmadagascar.org

One thousand endangered tortoises are being illegally collected each week in southern Madagascar, reports WWF. 

The trade, driven by international demand for the endemic radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) and the spider tortoise (Pyxis arachnoids) as well as local consumption, is driving the slow-to-reproduce species toward extinction in the wild. Additionally, tortoise trafficking poses a risk to local authorities, with poachers increasingly likely to be "armed and dangerous," according to WWF. 

Some 7,855 living tortoises and more than 4.8 tonnes of meat were seized between 2001 and 2010 according TRAFFIC, WWF's wildlife trade monitoring program. TRAFFIC estimates the seizures represent only two percent of the estimated 600,000 tortoises collected from the southern Madagascar during that period. 

Radiated tortoise in Madagascar. Photo by Rhett Butler

"The population decline of these flagship species is alarming," said Tiana Ramahaleo, WWF’s Conservation Planning and Species Program Coordinator in Madagascar, in a statement. "If we don’t manage to halt tortoise poaching and habitat destruction in the South, we might lose both tortoises in the wild in less than fifty years." 

Tortoises are collected as a local delicacy as well as the international pet trade, where the reptiles fetch high prices.