The supply of illegal tortoise meat to Toliara City, south-western Madagascar

A range of endemic and protected vertebrate species from Madagascar are threatened by the demand for bushmeat. We report on the number of discarded carapaces from illegally killed Critically Endangered radiated tortoises Astrochelys radiata in an urban centre in south-west Madagascar. Through covert monitoring of public rubbish dumps we observed 1,913 carapaces during July 2010-January 2014. There was notable spatial and temporal variation, with some evidence of peaks in carapace dumping during May-June and October-December. A single rubbish dump near the artisanal fishery landing beaches accounted for 93% of the observed carapaces.