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Looks better full screen He/she almost looks like a smile is coming on the face. The eyes are what will lock you in. This turtle is large enough for a toddler to ride on.
The strength and flexibility of the Galapagos Tortoise's neck was evident as I watched him graze the enclosure at the Miami Zoo. When he moved his neck you could see all the sinew and muscle beneath his leathery skin.
Its been around 30 years since I walked on the islands themselves and dove their teaming waters. It was a wonderful reminder of my time in that miraculous place with its incredible flora and fauna.
The beauty of this tortoise sadly has resulted in its being quite popular in the exotic pet trade. A large number of specimens of this species are found in the illegal wildlife trade in India. Few studies exist which have quantified wild populations and the effect of trade on them. They are found in dry areas and scrub forests in India and Sri Lanka.
A giant tortoise seen in the Santa Cruz Highlands.
There are several subspecies of the giant tortoise in the Galapagos, with variations across the different islands (more or less). They are big, majestic creatures, and move at surprising speed!
This is Samson, an African Spurred Tortoise. I was photographing in an indoor orchid garden when he came barreling past, making a beeline for the fence outside. It was a little sad...he stood at the fence gate (do turtles stand though?) and peered out the three-inch space to the unattainable freedom beyond. He stayed there for quite awhile. He had a female partner in an enclosure inside. Apparently she wasn't as easy-going as Samson, so she didn't get the run of the place.
Our new addition!
This is Uncas (please don't ask why). It's a horsfield tortoise.
Only about 12 weeks old and about 2 inches long.
Isolde bought this tortoise for R 100.00 from somebody next to the road. When we left it in the garden she started burrowing immediately and laid 7 eggs 3 hours later
We were surprised when he raised up to shift in the puddle. There was much more tortoise and much less mud than we thought.
Gopher Tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus)
A Gopher Tortoise rests at the entrance to its burrow. In Florida, the Gopher Tortoise is listed as a threatened species. They are also a keystone species as more than 100 other species rely on them or their burrows for survival. In the dry scrub habitat they are one of the few animals that can dig, and their burrows can extend up to 50 ft. underground. Many other animals in the scrub use these burrows to escape the heat, as nesting sites, or to take shelter from wildfires. Photographed with a Canon EOS 60D and Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM Lens at the FAU Tortuga Trail, Boca Raton, Florida, USA.
A giant tortoise seen in the Santa Cruz Highlands.
There are several subspecies of the giant tortoise in the Galapagos, with variations across the different islands (more or less). They are big, majestic creatures, and move at surprising speed!
Not always to happy at getting my photo taken this was an opportunity of a life time,The tortoise is native to seven of the Galápagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago about 1,000 km (620 mi) west of the Ecuadorian mainland. Spanish explorers who discovered the islands in the 16th century named them after the Spanish galápago, meaning tortoise.
Tortoise numbers declined from over 250,000 in the 16th century to a low of around 3,000 in the 1970s. The decline was caused by hunting for tortoise meat and oil, habitat clearance for agriculture, and introduction of non-native animals such as rats, goats, and pigs. Seven subspecies of the original ten survive in the wild. An eighth subspecies (C. n. abingdoni) has only a single living individual, in captivity, nicknamed Lonesome George. Here in Mombasa they are trying to breed the giant tortoise in a reintroduction programme.
I am the one one on the left.
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