Project Angonoka developed conservation plans that involved local communities making firebreaks, along with the creation of a park to protect the tortoise and the forests.

This species was originally described in 1885 by French zoologist Léon Vaillant, who named it Testudo yniphora (from Ancient Greek ὕνις (húnis)[6] 'ploughshare' and -φόρος (-phóros) 'bearer') based on the distinguished shape of the gular scute in the front of the plastron.

Astrochelys is attributed to John Edward Gray, who used the name in his 1873 book Hand-list of the specimens of shield reptiles in the British Museum.

They make use of bamboo-scrub habitat which is made up of different types of shrubs, savanna grasses, bamboo, and open areas with no vegetation.

The flora includes shrubbery usually under 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height, such as Bauhinia and Terminalia species, and Perrierbambus madagascariensis bamboo, which forms dense thickets.

In 1983 (published 1985) Curl et al. estimated a total population of 100–400 individuals in a range of 40–80 km2 (15–31 sq mi), found in five subpopulations, two east and three west of the Andranomavo River.

[16] In 1999 Smith et al. performed an exhaustive survey of the population on Cape Sada, counting 96 individuals, of which approximately half were adults.

They also concluded the remote Ambatomainty and Andrafiafaly sites were in fact were two ends of an extensive tract of contiguous habitat.

In 2005 the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT), which helps run the main captive breeding program, estimated a wild population of 800 individuals.

[19] The angonoka tortoise has been observed feeding on grasses found in open rocky areas of bamboo scrub.

[1] In captivity, males must be separated due to aggression towards each other, including ramming, pushing, and overturning with the enlarged gular scute.

[12] This species is one of the rarest land tortoises in the world, classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

[1] The principal threats to the species are believed to be fires started to clear land for cattle grazing, and collection for the pet trade.

The tortoise has a restricted distribution, likely a result of past collection for food, the expansion of agriculture, and accompanying fires.

[20] Fires made to clear land can get out of control, turning into wildfires, which cut back more of the angonoka tortoise's habitat.

The Water and Forests Department, the Durrell Trust, and the World Wide Fund for Nature work together on this project.

After the 1990s, Project Angonoka started ecological research on the tortoise and the development of conservation plans that involved the communities surrounding the habitat.

[25] On 20 March 2016, the Custom officials at Mumbai airport seized 146 tortoises from a mishandled baggage of a Nepal citizen.