Giant tortoises are roaming the forests of Madagascar for the for the first time in 600 years, thanks to a pioneering project to re-establish animals that had been hunted to extinction. The success is down to a visionary scientist and one of the oldest – and most feared – diseases known to man. Conservation biologist Miguel Pedrono had been searching for a suitable group of giant tortoises to launch his long-held rewilding plan when a deadly outbreak of plague ravaged the huge island, off Africa’s south-east coast, in 2017.
Read Next This is how I'm trying to save one of the world’s smallest countries from the sea Among those killed was a trafficker in exotic species – a Dutchman who lived in the island’s capital, Antananarivo. His inventory of animals included undocumented Aldabra giant tortoises with a close genetic link to the species that had once proliferated on Madagascar. With the help of contacts developed over decades, Dr Pedrono – who first became captivated by the island’s extraordinary biodiversity in 1993 as a 20-year-old student – secured their legal status with the Malagasy government, which allowed them to be used in his project.
“This trafficker did so many bad things for Madagascar and its biodiversity, but with his death he finally made a contribution to conservation,” said Dr Pedrono. “It was because of this terrible disease that I had the opportunity to find a very good group of tortoises to start the project.” The biologist had .