29th Annual Meeting and Symposium of the
Desert Tortoise Council, February 20-23, 2004
Abstracts

BANQUET ADDRESS

In Search of the Angonoka Tortoise of Madagascar

Lora L. Smith
Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, Route 2 Box 2324, Newton, Georgia 39870

The diverse reptile fauna of Madagascar includes four endemic tortoises, Geochelone yniphora, G. radiata, Pyxis arachnoides, and P. planicauda. Two giant tortoises, Dipsochelys grandidieri and D. abrupta, were extirpated from Madagascar following the arrival of humans, most likely as a result of over-hunting and habitat alteration. None of the living species are well known, and all four species are threatened by human activities. In 1993, I traveled to Madagascar to begin the first long-term field study of the angonoka (aka ploughshare tortoise), the most endangered of the four living species. The angonoka has been bred in captivity since the mid-1980s, but little was known of its status and ecology in the wild. The angonoka tortoise occurs in bamboo-scrub forest in western Madagascar and all known populations occur within a <100 km² area around Baly Bay. I spent two years searching for previously unrecorded tortoise populations and lived and worked on the tiny peninsula of Cape Sada. A travelogue of Madagascar along with an overview of the status and ecology of the angonoka tortoise will be presented.