Sanctuary staff, locals and police officers joined together in the rescue effort, building makeshift rafts for the tortoises to float on.

A community grouped together to save the reptiles after Cyclone Dikeledi struck the southern part of the island earlier this month.

Flood waters engulfed the sanctuary, and the tortoises — many of them mere whippersnappers in the tortoise world at about 25-50 years old — were carried away.

The community near the Lavavolo Tortoise Center in southern Madagascar pulled together to help the creatures who were left terrified after a cyclone hit the region.