Characteristics

Known as “angonoka” in its native Madagascar, the ploughshare tortoise has a highly-domed, golden-colored carapace (shell). It also has a distinctly elongated piece of the lower shell that sticks out between the front legs, often curving up toward the tortoise’s neck. This impressive projection is called the “gular scute,” and it looks a bit like the front piece on a plough, which is how this tortoise got its name. Males have a longer gular scute than females, and they use it to tussle with one another when competing for mates during breeding season. If one male manages to get that scute underneath another male, he even tries to flip him over!

Behavior

Ploughshare tortoises are mostly active during the day, foraging for food in the morning and late afternoon. They don’t dig burrows like some tortoises, but instead nestle into leaf litter for protection and camouflage. They are not particularly active from May through October, during the cool, dry season, but during the rainy months of November and December, courtship, mating, and egg laying takes place.

Diet

These tortoises are largely herbivorous, and their diet consists of many types of leaves, fruits, and grasses. Even though they spend time in bamboo scrub, they rarely eat bamboo leaves, which can contain high levels of cyanide. They’ve also been noted to eat the feces of some animals, from which they might obtain nutrients lacking in their diet.

Habitat Use

Ploughshare tortoises are terrestrial and live in bamboo scrub, savannas, and shrub thickets. The climate is hot and semi-humid. They will shelter in dense thickets, but they prefer to forage in open, grassy areas.

Reproduction and Life Cycle

Mating takes place from October to February, mostly in the months of November and December. Courtship includes the male sniffing and then repeatedly circling the female, occasionally pushing and nipping at her.

The females nest about three months after mating in open areas, but usually near a bush, log, or tree. The female digs a shallow pit with her hind legs and urinates to moisten the soil during excavation. The average hole width is 11.43 centimeters and 10.92 centimeters deep. She packs the soil tightly over the eggs, and then her work is done—although a female may lay four to five clutches of one to six eggs, each clutch one month apart. Incubation of the eggs ranges from 197 to 281 days. The hatchlings emerge during the daytime and are completely independent upon hatching.

Conservation and Threats

The ploughshare tortoise is widely recognized as the world’s most endangered tortoise. Currently, the total range for the species is restricted to the Baly Bay National Park in northwestern Madagascar. The serious decline of this beautiful tortoise is due primarily to the illegal wildlife trade, with poachers taking them from the wild to sell as pets. They are at further risk from habitat loss, especially from wildfires, since they cannot escape them. Conservationists estimate that there are fewer than 100 ploughshare tortoises remaining in the wild, and there is concern that they could go extinct within just a few years. However, if the wildlife trade in this species can be halted, and the tortoises can be protected in secure habitat, it is hoped that the ploughshare will be trundling through the scrub for a long time to come.