The wild population is/was decimated for food markets in China since the Chinese have more 'buying power' since its currency was converted and the emergence of a 'middle-class' citizen resultung from economic capitalism that has sprung up in the last decade. This new found wealth in China has brought luxuries that did not exist before. One of these unfortunately is the desire to consume the more rarer and expensive turtles and tortoises, in this case platynota. Prior, cheaper more readily available animals were chosen.

There are also those that breed the tortoises outside of their habitat that put offsrping back into the pet trade. There are radiata being bred outside of Madagascar in places like Thailand, Singapore and Japan. I have heard that there is the occasional captive bred yniphora to be found in a pet market as well.

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