FREEME Wildlife, A Rocha South Africa, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, and other interested parties are involved in a collaborative effort to reintroduce tortoises back into the wild.

Presently legislation does not allow for the release of tortoises that have been kept in captivity back into the wild. On one hand, this is to protect the wild populations from genetic mixing through interbreeding with individuals from uncertain genetic backgrounds and to protect wild populations from exposure to pathogens they have no natural immunity to—pathogens that will put the entire wild population in an area at risk.

On the other hand, previous releases undertaken with captive tortoises have proved a failure. This is because captive tortoises do not have an innate recognition of natural foods in the wild, are incredibly unfit, and are unable to navigate the dangers they are exposed to in the wild, conditions which almost always lead to their deaths.

FREEME Wildlife, and those organizations partnering with us, are setting out to change the fate of captive tortoises by embarking on an intensive program to ‘re-wild’ these tortoises; introducing them to natural foods, encouraging their natural instincts and responses, getting them fit, and putting them through a series of health checks that include monitoring stress levels and testing for pathogens.