Critically Endangered
Angonoka tortoise
Astrochelys yniphora
Angonoka tortoise is a tortoise in the family Testudinidae — Astrochelys yniphora, recorded as Critically Endangered and tied to Madagascar.
Appearance
The carapace is highly domed and light brown in colour with prominent growth rings on each scute. The outer parts of the vertebral are a darker brown.
Males are larger than females, reaching a carapace length up to 17 in (43 cm). The average length of an adult male angonoka tortoise is 414.8 mm (16.33 in) and the average weight is 10.3 kg (23 lb).
Taxonomy This species was originally described in 1885 by French zoologist Léon Vaillant, who named it Testudo yniphora (from Ancient Greek ὕνις (húnis) 'ploughshare' and -φόρος (-phóros) 'bearer') based on the distinguished shape of the gular scute in the front of the plastron.
Range and habitat
In the wild, this species is only found in Madagascar, where it is endemic to the dry forests in the Baly Bay area of northwestern Madagascar, near the town of Soalala (among them Baie de Baly National Park). The distribution is 25 to 60 km2 (9.7 to 23.2 sq mi) in range around Baly Bay. The Baly Bay region is made up of savanna, mangrove swamps, and dry deciduous forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It is also known to eat shrubs, forbs, and herbs. A captive-breeding facility was established in 1986 by the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (now the Durrell Trust) in collaboration with the Water and Forests Department.
In crisis
The first population surveys of this species were performed by Juvik & Blanc in 1974 and Juvik et al. In 1981, in that they estimated the total wild population to be a few hundred, based on a population density of around five tortoises per km2 and a potential range of approximately 100 km2 (39 sq mi) in suitable habitat. In 1983 (published 1985) Curl et al. Estimated a total population of 100–400 individuals in a range of 40–80 km2 (15–31 sq mi), found in five subpopulations, two east and three west of the Andranomavo River. The most accessible and most studied area was on Cape Sada, and numerous surveys in the 1990s estimated a population there of around 30 individuals.
In 1999 Smith et al. Performed an exhaustive survey of the population on Cape Sada, counting 96 individuals, of that approximately half were adults. Smith et al. Did not provide a total population estimate, but based on their research a population of 400–1500 tortoises could be extrapolated.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Angonoka tortoise is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Angonoka tortoise, Wikidata item Q769942. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
