Plant Xxx
We headed north from Toliara along the coast. We were headed for Tortise Village and the Reniala Forest.
Tortise Village was set up to help save two species of tortise, the < a href="https://theturtleroom.org/species-profile/astrochelys-radiata/">Radiated Astrochelys radiata and the Spider Pyxis arachnoides. They are trafficked illegally for the pet trade, and eaten locally. Poaching is a serious ongoing problem. In addition, people burn forested areas to promote grasslands for livestock; they also cut down and burn trees to make charcoal. All of this reduces the habitat needed by the fortises. Tortise Village is small, about 14 hectares (~35 acres) of spiny forest with fenced areas for different populations of tortises.
The first tortises we saw were having a pre-mating fight. It's kind of a slo-mo event... We asked our guide, Renaud, how you tell the males from the females, and he told us the males have a curved underside while the females are flat.
The reserve has both Radiated ("Starred", "Red-headed") and Spider Tortises; both are critically endangered. Farther north, in the Kirindy area near Morandava, there are Flat-Tiled Tortises which are also critically endangered.
The tortises were separated by size in different pens. The pens that had youngsters in them seemed to have a lot of them, but they were mostly hiding under the leaf-litter. Since this was the dry season, some of them were probably burrowed into the sand aestivating.
Renaud said the Spider Tortises live to about 70 years, while the Radiated can live to 150. Males reach sexual maturity at about 25 years; females at about 18 years. Renaud also said a tortise with a yellow shell is probably over 100 years old, although a lot of the tortises we saw seemed to have yellow shells.
Female Spider Tortises are slightly larger than males; Renaud said the reverse is true for Radiated Tortises.
