Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Train Tracks Adjusted to Save Karoo Tortoises!

Photo by Frans van Heerden via Pexels

Hope is finally on the horizon for the tortoises of the Karoo, who have faced a perilous journey across railway tracks for the longest time. The National Council of SPCAs engaged with Transnet, which will modify the tracks to help these precious wildlife escape entrapment and avoid a tragic end.

Karoo, South Africa (06 December 2024) – Urban life can be a struggle for our smallest creatures. For many years, tortoises in the Karoo have been plagued with an unusual and often fatal challenge of having to navigate the more than 60km of railway tracks that stretch between Leeu-Gamka and Beaufort-West in the Western Cape.

According to the National Council of SPCAs, the depression between the two lines of the track causes many tortoises to find themselves trapped and end up suffering a lingering death due to dehydration and starvation.

Compelled to intervene and spare countless more tortoises from succumbing to a tragic fate, the National Council of SPCAs Wildlife Protection Unit (WPU) recently engaged with Transnet to drive a simple but innovative initiative to protect these incredible reptiles.

As a result, the railway company has since committed to altering about 8km of tracks to create small “culverts” at regular intervals to allow tortoises to escape from the railway lines should they become trapped.

“There are plans in place to extend this to the entire 60km length. We’d like to applaud Transnet for committing to these changes and are hopeful that this simple but successful solution will be implemented in other areas with similar predicaments,” the SPCA said.

Compassionate teamwork truly makes the dream work, and our little indigenous wildlife will get to explore their surroundings without fear of undeserved fatality.