Radiated tortoise
Astrochelys radiata
Seen by the oracleIts power
The stars on its shell make it vanish in dry grass. You can walk right past without seeing it.
Estimated wild population
Fewer than 1.5 million (about 12 million in the past)
Trend
Severely declining
Range
South and southwest Madagascar
Main threat
Hunting for meat and for international trade, habitat loss in southern Madagascar
Meet it
It really exists. It is waiting for you at the Parc Animalier d’Auvergne.
The radiated tortoise is one of the most beautiful tortoises in the world, recognisable by its high, domed shell decorated with yellow star patterns on a black background. It lives only in the south and southwest of Madagascar and is perfectly suited to the dry spiny forests and scrubland of that region. It eats plants: grasses, prickly pears and succulent plants. It can live more than 100 years, but the female lays only 3 to 12 eggs a year. Its numbers may have fallen by 40%, and it could lose 80% of its population in three generations, because of massive illegal collecting for the pet trade and for local eating.
What the Park does
EEP programme, captive breeding, cooperation with the Malagasy government