A tortoise poem by Laurie

T opaz
Our class says your'e sooo cute
Putting you in the cage was sad
A dream came true this day
Zero nightmares at night

Tortoise art by Clara

Helping load the 14 radiated tortoises

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Tortoise Education

Jemma and tortoises

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In the box

Tortoises ready to be loaded

Monday the 8th of March 2010

Kids checking out the tortoises

Mr Herilala from the Wildlife conservation society Madagascar

We are weighing the tortoises here, prior to shipping them off to Tulear.

Rick Hudson from Turtle Survival Alliance

Spider tortoise (Left) radiated (Right)

Sudharshan at the vetting stage.

Tortoise art by Sudharshan.

Tortoise art by Kiran, Sheena and Gillian.

Tortoise art by Christof and Ferro

Our smallest tortoise: Topaz

Hellen holding Topaz

Thank you Hellen for being willing and brave enough to let your pet be taken back to where he belongs.

Repatriation from Tana

Last year (2009) Mr. Len (Grade 4) started the process of inquiring about the possibility of repatriating a number of tortoises from Tana back into the
areas from which they come. The obvious educational and conservation value of this exercise has warranted the effort that we have
given it, and it seems that it will bear fruit.

Last year¹s 4th graders (2009) and this year¹s 4th graders (2010)
Collected a sum of money that will help with the project and Mr.
Herilala from the Wildlife Conservation.Society. has assured us that the boma (holding) facility in Tulear is ready to receive the guests.

W.C.S. has a vet who will examine the animals before we have permission to move them. At this stage of the operation we have permission for only one truck carrying a specified number of tortoises to Tulear.

We know that some people will be unwilling to give up their pets and some
may be skeptical about the idea of repatriation. Others may be only too happy to take this opportunity to free their pets from yet another winter in Antananarivo.

The tortoises are being kept in a special area of the school garden till
we can get them vetted and cleaned of parasites

This project forms a practical part of the unit that 4th grade has
been studying: How to care for the earth and what we can do to make a
difference. We sincerely hope that we can rely on your support with
this exciting project. Please contact us if you have any questions about the operation.

The new home for our tortoises

This is the main entrance at Ifaty.

Quarantine area

This is the quarantine area. The tortoises from ASA will be kept here at first.

The Tulear facility

This is an enclosure where tortoises are kept. Overall there is a total of 7ha that is fenced and it is impossible to get inside unless you can fly over a 2m50 fence.

Theo, Tristan Sheena and Keenan

Written by: Theo, Keenan, Tristan and Sheena . (4th Grade 2010, American school of Antananarivo)

Passports and vetting
The second part of the process in getting the tortoises back to Toliara is getting the tortoise passports and vetting. For the tortoise passport photos, the vet must take a picture of each tortoise on a black-and-white checkerboard background from above and they will be able to recognize the tortoises from the streaks and dings (dents) on the top of the shell. The tortoises also need to be looked at by vets to make sure they do not have diseases that they could pass on to other tortoises.