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Environment
A biologist wants to save
the legendary Madagascar Radiated Tortoise
In January a University of Montréal biologist,
Sebastian Rioux Paquette, flew off on a four-month visit
to Madagascar. His mission is to save the Radiated Tortoise
(Geochelone radiata), classified by the World
Conservation Union as a threatened species. “The
distribution range of the Radiated Tortoise has decreased
by 20% during the past 25 years, and in several places
where it still lives the population density has fallen
by a factor of 10 in five years,” explains the doctoral
student.
With a few tens of millions of individuals, the Radiated
Tortoise’s future is less precarious than the island’s
other four turtles, which appear on the list of 25 most
endangered species in the world. It is still common in
some regions thanks to a popular belief. For the Antandroys
and south Mahafalies, it is forbidden to kill a land turtle,
or even to approach one. Legend has it that an ancestor
cooked a living turtle, causing the terracotta caldron
to explode. The destruction of this ancestral container
led to the prohibition, which is still religiously observed
today.
Not all inhabitants respect this prohibition. In the
south, for example, where the Antanosy live, the Radiated
Tortoises have completely disappeared. In fact, a poor
family eats an average two turtles per week, and more during
festivities. Add to this the lucrative illicit trade with
Asian markets (up to 50,000 adult Radiated Turtles are
sold annually), and you get a better idea of why it is
necessary to act fast. “The goal of my research is
to provide the local communities with a tool that enables
them to determine the populations’ state of health
easily. With these data, they will have a precise idea
of their genetic diversity and can estimate the number
of individuals,” explained the biologist just a few
days before his departure.
It was in part due to taxonomist François-Joseph
Lapointe, whose work on the turtles has long been recognized,
that Sebastian Rioux Paquette got involved in this project.
In fact, a method used in his laboratory will be applied
in this Indian Ocean island. What applies to our Northern
Wood Turtle also applies to a reptile on the far side of
the world. “The sampling is very simple. You just
remove a scale that protrudes from the turtle’s front
paw. There is no bleeding, no pain for the animal. And
for the natives, it is a less invasive approach than taking
blood.”
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