Captive breeding
No estimates of wild populations are available, but their numbers are declining, and many authorities see the potential for a rapid decline to extinction in the wild. In the North American studbook, 332 specimens are listed as participating in captive-breeding programs such as the Species Survival Plan. Captive breeding has shown great promise as in the captive-breeding program for the radiated tortoise at the New York Zoological Society's Wildlife Survival Center. In 2005, the Wildlife Survival Center was closed, and the radiated tortoise captive-breeding program was continued with the inception of the Behler Chelonian Center, the Turtle Conservancy's southern California conservation breeding center.