Greek tortoise
| Greek tortoise | ||||||||||||
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Testudo hermanni boettgeri in their Greek homeland |
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| Testudo hermanni | ||||||||||||
| Gmelin , 1789 |
The Greek tortoise ( Testudo hermanni ) is one of three tortoise species of the genus Testudo that are native to the European part of the Mediterranean and occurs in two subspecies ( Testudo hermanni hermanni and Testudo hermanni boettgeri ). Greek tortoises are predominantly herbivorous , diurnal reptiles that can reach an age comparable to that of humans. The destruction of their traditional habitats and their popularity as pets have endangered the wildlife population and made protective measures essential for their long-term preservation.
description
The Greek tortoise is a small to medium-sized tortoise about 20 centimeters in length with a rigid belly shell ( plastron ), which does not have a hinge in front of the hind legs, even in females. The back armor ( carapace ) is moderately high arched. It usually widens slightly towards the end of the tail and therefore looks oval to slightly trapezoidal when viewed from above. As with most turtles, the shell, made of bone plates, is covered by thin horn shields, whereby the so-called tail shield in Testudo hermanni is usually divided. The basic color of the carapace is yellow to olive with dark spots, which are different depending on the individual and the subspecies. Young animals hatch from the egg with a clear and high-contrast drawing of the shell. In older animals, the coloring and drawing become increasingly blurred. The head and front legs have small to medium-sized scales, the front legs usually have five claws, in some local forms only four. The rear extremities always have four claws. The basic color of the head and extremities is yellowish to brown, both are light and dark scales. Testudo hermanni has a horn nail at the tail end of both sexes , which is usually not present in the other representatives of the genus. The Greek tortoise also differs significantly from the Moorish tortoise, which is quite similar in design, color and size, in the absence of horn cones between the tail and hind legs.
distribution
The Greek tortoise colonizes large parts of the European Mediterranean area. Their distribution area extends from Spain (Catalonia) through southern France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania to the European part of Turkey. There are also numerous islands in the Mediterranean.
Systematics and subspecies
The Greek tortoise is one of the few species that still belong to the genus Testudo , in which Carl von Linné had placed all tortoises in 1758. However, it was also known as the Testudo graeca for a long time . 1925 gave her Flower again the name Testudo hermanni , Gmelin 1789. The 2006 by Lapparent de Broin u. a. The required independent genus Eurotestudo was not adopted by other scientists and CITES , especially since it has meanwhile been established that in this case the older genus name Chersine would be available.
There was also some confusion about the names and number of the subspecies, as Gmelin had made a mistake in the first description in 1789. Thus, animals of the eastern distribution areas were initially referred to as Testudo hermanni hermanni , whereas those of the western distribution areas were referred to as Testudo hermanni robertmertensi . The separation of a local form from Dalmatia as a third subspecies or independent species has not been confirmed in genetic studies. Today two subspecies are generally recognized:
Testudo hermanni hermanni , Gmelin 1789
The back armor of this subspecies is slightly higher arched and has a more intense yellow color. The well-defined and symmetrical black coloring elements, which often take up more than half of the area, are in stark contrast to this. On the back armor above the tail (fifth vertebral shield ) there is a characteristic, black-framed keyhole drawing. The belly armor has two connected black bands along the central seam. The forefeet usually has no black pigmentation on the underside. The base of the claws is often brightly colored.
- Distribution: Eastern Spain, Southern France, Balearic Islands, Corsica , Sardinia , Central Italy . The populations living on the Mediterranean islands are based on human application.
- Terra typica : Collobrières, Var, France
- Holotype : Museum of Zoology, University of Strasbourg , MZUS 121
- Origin of name: The subspecies was named after Johann (or Jean) Hermann (1738–1800), a zoologist, botanist, physician, chemist and philosopher from Strasbourg , whose zoological collection contained the type specimen of this species.
Testudo hermanni boettgeri , Mojsisovics 1889
The back armor from T. h. boettgeri is slightly less arched than in the western subspecies. The color of the carapace is straw to olive yellow with black spots, but overall not as rich in contrast as in the nominate form . The belly armor is almost always horn-colored and has only single black spots on both sides of the central seam, mostly no ribbons. The head is brownish to black in color and the base of the claws is dark in color.
The form described by Werner in 1899 as Testudo graeca var. Hercegovinensis was re-validated by Perälä in 2002 as Testudo (hermanni) hercegovinensis and was revalidated by T. h. boettgeri split off, but this was again doubted by Uwe Fritz in 2006. The CITES species database does not list any corresponding species either. This local form, known in German as the Dalmatian tortoise , differs from other T. h. boettgeri, among other things, due to their smaller body size and often missing inguinal shields (hip shields). Perälä specifies a part of the former Dalmatia as the distribution area of the variant , i.e. the Croatian coastal region, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro .
- Distribution: Croatia, North Macedonia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece, European part of Turkey.
- Terra typica: Orșova , Cerna Valley , Banat
- Name origin: The subspecies name boettgeri goes back to the Frankfurt herpetologist Oskar Böttger (1844–1910).
Way of life in nature
Greek tortoises are diurnal reptiles that rely on solar energy to digest their predominantly vegetarian food. As poikilothermal (cold-blooded) animals, they can not generate the necessary body heat themselves, but have to influence it according to their needs by moving from shady to sunny places. For the proper digestion of their fiber-rich food, they need body temperatures of around 25 to 30 ° C for a few hours a day (preferred temperature, Huot-Daubremont, 1996), which they can reach, for example through morning sunbathing, even when the air temperature is still significant is lower. Above 40 ° C they endanger their lives and therefore bury themselves in the cooler earth. The metabolism comes to a standstill below 8 ° C. Breathing and heart rate are also greatly reduced.
Habitat and area sizes
The Greek tortoise colonizes almost all forms of vegetation in the Mediterranean area up to an altitude of around 1500 meters. It inhabits light pine, oak and cork oak forests , hedge, shrub and heathland landscapes ( macchia , garrigue ), as well as cultivated areas such as meadows, olive and citrus groves, arable land and gardens. Sometimes there is a change between individual forms of vegetation, for example to lay eggs.
On their hikes to search for food, the animals cover an average of 80 meters a day, but sometimes more than 400 meters. In this way, paths of around 12 kilometers in length are created each year. The animals use very large territories, 1.8 hectares and more depending on the biotope (Hailey 1989).
Daily and annual cycle
After the winter rigor in March / April, the animals use their active time mainly for sunbathing in the warm morning hours (thermoregulation). The main activity phase is in May or June. Now there is increased food consumption, changes in territory and sexual behavior such as copulation and oviposition. The summer heat in July and August forces the animals to a divided daily rhythm, with a retreat into cool hiding places during the hot time of the day. In autumn (September / October) the activity drops significantly. The warm-up phases now take up a large part of the active time again (Cheylan, 2001). In addition, there is also renewed mating activity. The cold season (three to five, in exceptional cases six months) is mostly spent inactive in frost-free caves. Often the animals burrow into the earth in a protected place to hibernate.
Young animals spend the first years of life hidden in the area of hedges and bushes. Because of their small size, overheating and dehydration pose a much greater risk to them than to adult turtles. They are therefore more active on overcast days and in the cooler times of the day and seasons.
food
A large number of annual and perennial plants from a wide range of plant families are recorded. Food preferences are clearly identifiable. In a study in Corsica, for example, only nine plant species accounted for the main diet of 62 percent. In order of popularity, these are members of the sunflower family (Asteraceae), legumes (Fabaceae), buttercups (Ranunculaceae), arum family (Araceae), bellflower family (Campanulaceae), bindweed family (Convolvulaceae) and redwood family (Rubiaceae). The leaves of the plants are mainly eaten (approx. 70%), but also flowers, fruits and, to a lesser extent, the stems. In addition, the animals were observed ingesting invertebrates (e.g. snails and smaller nudibranchs), carrion and faeces from vertebrates, small stones and the egg yolk and protein of broken bird eggs. Plants with aromatic scents such as lavender and thyme are not eaten.
Enemies
Looting the clutches, usually immediately after the laying, brings the greatest losses. In addition, young animals in particular have a number of predators, such as birds of prey and corvids, rats, martens, foxes, dogs and wild boars. For larger turtles, only very large birds of prey , dogs, wild boars and humans pose a threat.
Vocalizations
Greek tortoises are usually dumb. However, there are occasional vocalizations. The animals often make a hissing, hissing sound when they feel threatened. When mating , the male makes loud, panting sounds. After hastily swallowing food, hiccups may occur that sound similar to humans. Flatulence noises are also very rare .
Life expectancy and maximum age
The economical use of energy is the reason why tortoises can reach an old age. In the cold-blooded (poikilothermal) Greek tortoise, life processes slow down in some periods, due to the temperature drop at night, in bad weather and during winter rigor. They can therefore be a good five times older than mammals of comparable size and, under favorable circumstances, live for over 100 years.
However, despite this possible maximum age, the actual life expectancy in nature is significantly lower; only about one percent of sexually mature animals reach the age of 50 years. When investigating a population of T. h. boettgeri in northern Greece, annual survival rates in adult animals of around 90 percent have been determined, with males having a slightly higher survival rate than females. Males had an average of 11.6 years to live after they reached sexual maturity (mean nine years of age). In females, on average, sexual maturity did not occur until the age of eleven. After that, they had a further life expectancy of just 8.1 years. Their shorter life expectancy is explained by the consequences of mating injuries by the males, which can lead to death via infections and maggot infestations. The life expectancy of females increases with decreasing population density, i.e. fewer animals, fewer attempts to mate and therefore fewer injuries in the females. That of the males, however, remains the same. The survival rate of young animals in nature is little explored due to their hidden way of life. However, it is generally considered to be minor. There is also evidence of high annual survival rates of over 80 percent in some populations (Willemsen, personal communication). No difference in the survival rate between the sexes could be found in young animals (Hailey et al. 1990/2000).
Reproduction
As with some other turtle species, the sex is not already determined by sex chromosomes at fertilization, but only determined in the course of embryonic development by the incubation temperature (ESD / TSD, environment / temperature-dependent sex fixation). In Testudines , to which the Greek tortoise also belongs, males emerge below a so-called peak temperature, and females above that. The peak temperature is the incubation temperature that results in a balanced sex ratio under constant laboratory conditions. For T. hermanni it is 31.5 ° C.
Gender differences
Greek tortoises have a pronounced sexual dimorphism . Males and females show clear secondary sexual characteristics that are expressed at around four to six years of age. Animals that have just hatched from the egg cannot be differentiated according to sex.
Adult males have a longer tail and a thicker tail root, in which the penis is hidden and is everted for mating and for defecation and urination. The horn nail at the end of the tail can be quite large in an older male. The belly armor is slightly curved inwards ( concave ) so as not to slip off the female when mating. The shape of the tail shields of the belly armor and the upper tail shield of the back armor also characterize the male. Females, on the other hand, are generally larger and heavier than males, and their cloaca is closer to the body. Your horn nail is much smaller and slightly curved inwards. The belly armor is flat.
pairing
Greek tortoises have mating rituals that appear extremely crude to humans. The male pursues and circles the female incessantly and tries to prevent her from running away by biting her legs vigorously. Bites in the head will cause the female to pull in the head, the cloaca protruding slightly. Now the male can ride.
During the so-called friction movements before the actual copulation , the male opens its mouth and emits groaning sounds, which may have a stimulating effect on the female. In the pairing attempts by T. h. boettgeri , the male can inflict severe mating injuries to the female through his long horn nail. Males are willing to mate all year round, especially in spring and especially in autumn. However, the male's attempts to mate are often unsuccessful. In one study, mating was completed in less than one percent of the attempts. This is probably compensated by the ability of the female to store seeds from previous successful matings for a long time, possibly years, and thus to fertilize the maturing eggs without re-mating.
In contrast to other European tortoise species, the sex ratio among adult animals is not balanced in many natural T. h. boettgeri populations, but in some cases is strongly shifted in favor of the males. In addition to earlier onset of sexual maturity in males, the main reason for this is the shorter life expectancy of the females.
Oviposition, incubation and hatching
As with most turtle species, brood care is limited to the careful selection of the egg-laying area in terms of temperature and humidity and presumably also food and cover for the hatching young animals. The female turtle often leaves its traditional territory and searches for a long time until it has found a suitable place. This is often retained for years. Once it has found it, it digs a relatively deep egg pit with its hind legs, into which it carefully places the eggs. Then the pit is carefully shoveled in again and the offspring are left to hatch in the sun. Female Greek tortoises lay up to 14 hard-shelled eggs two to three times a year (from April to June), but on average three to six eggs per clutch. The eggs weigh an average of 16 grams and are 35 to 37 millimeters in diameter. The clutch sizes vary in the different populations (Stubbs 1985, Hailey 1988, Eendebak 1995). The danger to the eggs laid by nest robbers is extremely high. Very many clutches are completely destroyed, in some populations up to almost 100 percent (Willemsen et al. 1989).
The small turtles hatch from the end of August to the end of September after an average breeding period of around 90 days, in France up to 110 days, in Romania up to 124 (Cheylan 1981, Cruce et al. 1976). When autumn rains soften the parched earth and promise a rich supply of food, they dig their way up out of the egg pit with a joint effort.
Youth growth
In the first few years, T. h. boettgeri a relatively linear, annual increase in length of about one centimeter armor length ( stick measure ). Due to the regular growth periods, clearly visible growth rings form on the shields of the back armor, which can be used for approximate age determination. Some time after sexual maturity, growth slows down; the growth rings become increasingly narrow. Turtles show lifelong growth, but in very old animals there is no longer any visible growth, and the earlier growth rings are no longer clear enough for an age determination.
Mean onset of sexual maturity and end of rapid youth growth vary among different populations of T. h. boettgeri considerably. In Greece, averages for sexual maturity have been found to range from around six to fourteen years for males and seven to sixteen years for females. These considerable differences are not caused by higher hatching weights or stronger youth growth, but rather by a later end of the rapid growth, which in the individual local forms can be nine years, but also only after 20 years. Animals that remain smaller often even have a somewhat faster youth growth than those that are getting larger. The growth curve just flattens out much earlier for them. The greatest armor length (31.4 cm) was measured on a museum piece from Bulgaria. Usually, however, the animals remain significantly smaller: males reach armor lengths up to 20 cm, females up to 26 cm. However, much smaller local forms are also known (Willemsen et al., 1999). T. h. hermanni rarely reaches a shell length of more than 18 cm (average value for old females in Calabria , 12.8 cm, Willemsen 2000). There are even animals whose armor length is only seven centimeters when fully grown.
Hazard and protection
Species Protection Convention
Like all European tortoises, T. hermanni , especially the western subspecies, is threatened in its home countries. The IUCN classifies the total population of the Greek tortoise as “low endangered”, while the nominate form is “endangered”. In the middle of the last century it was mainly the systematic collection for the central and northern European pet market that brought many populations to the verge of extinction. Consequently, T. hermanni was listed in Appendix II of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species (CITES) from the very beginning, since 1975 . Since then, the signatory states have been completely banned from trading animals taken from the wild. With the accession of the major European buyer countries to the convention for the protection of species, mainly between 1976 and 1978, the export market collapsed, even if most of the native countries of the Greek tortoise signed a lot later. Greece and Turkey, for example, did not join until 1993 and 1996 respectively.
Animals reared in captivity are also subject to an official reporting requirement and require marketing permits to be passed on to other keepers. Since 1996 these have been the so-called EU papers with identification of individual individuals. Initially, animals weighing over 500 grams had to be provided with an electronic microchip. Now a photo documentation of the development of the back and belly armor is required, since the shape of the shields invariably identifies the individual animals. Without these papers, disclosure is illegal throughout the European Union and will be punished; also an import, for example as a tourist souvenir.
Protection under European law
The Greek tortoise is listed in Appendix A of Regulation (EC) No. 338/97 ( EU Species Protection Regulation ) and has therefore enjoyed the highest protection status in the European Union since 1984 - more strictly than under CITES. Without the approval of the competent authority, any import into the EU and any marketing in the EU is prohibited; in Germany this is a criminal offense; this applies to living specimens as well as to parts of or products made from animals of this species or their eggs. The Greek tortoise is also listed in Appendices II and IV of the Habitats Directive and is therefore a species of community interest to be strictly protected, for whose conservation special protected areas must be designated by the member states.
Persistent threat and protection projects
The Greek tortoise trade ban has not ended the human threat. Above all, the destruction of traditional habitats through construction work, reclamation of fallow land, for example through slash and burn, the use of heavy machinery and herbicides, but also overgrazing by livestock (sheep and goats) deprives tortoises, especially the sensitive young animals, of food and protection from or against dehydration Predators. If the loss of habitat continues as before, the tortoise population in Greece, for example, will have fallen to 20 to 40 percent in 100 years and will be extinct by the end of the millennium. In addition, many populations live in isolation from one another due to the fragmentation of the landscape, which in the long term also threatens the conservation of the species due to the reduction in gene diversity, albeit significantly less than the loss of habitat.
In order to prevent the complete extinction of the Greek tortoise, there are some - in some cases controversial - species protection projects in their home countries. For the last population of the particularly endangered nominate form T. h. hermanni on the Iberian Peninsula , the Parc Natural de l'Albera National Park was established in 1986 in the foothills of the eastern Pyrenees , from which three resettlement projects in Catalonia are also managed. In the south of France , the SOPTOM project in Gonfaron not only maintains natural habitats, but also takes care of road and fire victims and prepares some animals that have been in captivity for a long time to be released into the wild. Other, partly private nature conservation projects are the Carapax Center in Massa Marittima , Italy, the Center de Reproducció de Tortugues de l'Albera in Garriguella / Northern Spain and O AETOS e. V. in Platamonas , Greece.
The Greek tortoise as a pet
Tortoises have been used by humans for thousands of years, as a source of food, the shell as a commodity and decorative object, and the living animal as a children's toy. On a Lower Italian oinochoe from the 4th century BC. BC (exhibit in the British Museum ) a girl is shown playing with a tortoise. It has tied a string to the animal's hind leg and lets it dangle upside down in front of a dog's nose.
The current use of these animals, also in their home countries, is largely restricted by the Washington Convention on the Protection of Species to the keeping of descendants of what were once wild-caught. In our latitudes, the Greek tortoise places relatively high demands on keeping it, as it is an animal whose life processes are controlled by the high light intensity and solar heat in the Mediterranean area.
attitude
For species-appropriate keeping you need a large, sunny outdoor enclosure with shade and hiding spots, as well as a shelter. Adequate protection against predators (e.g. martens, raccoons, rats, raptors, dogs) must be ensured. As with all other European tortoises, keeping in a terrarium is not advisable due to the lack of space and the lack of natural sunlight, rain and wind.
In their natural habitat, Greek tortoises mainly feed on wild forage. Nutrition in human care should be based on this. It should be done (sparingly) with meadow herbs rich in crude fiber, for example dandelion and goose thistle (Asteraceae), clover , alfalfa and bird vetch (Fabaceae), field or fence bindweed (Convolvulaceae), plantain and many other wild herbs. Daily fresh drinking water and a sufficient supply of lime for healthy shell growth must also be ensured, for example by using crushed eggshells , cuttlefish shells or mussel grit (crushed mussel shell ). Dennert recommends a calcium / phosphorus ratio of around 1.5: 1. All animal products, fruit, vegetables and commercial turtle food should not be fed fundamentally, but at most occasionally. Their mostly excessive nutrient content and their unnatural - even unsuitable - composition can lead to life-threatening metabolic and bone diseases in captivity.
The rigid winter should be in T. h. boettgeri three to five months a year, with T. h. hermanni three months. The animals overwinter at 4 to 6 ° C (possibly in a separate refrigerator) buried in a slightly moist substrate. Overwintering temperatures that are too dry and temperatures above 8 ° C exhaust the animals and can result in symptoms of poisoning due to a lack of excretion. At temperatures below 2 ° C, the animals could freeze to death, and there is also the risk of frost damage to the carapace.
A veterinarian check for parasites and general health should be carried out annually.
breed
Breeding and rearing of the Greek tortoise are also problem-free in captivity. In the Federal Republic of Germany alone, several thousand hatchlings are raised annually by private turtle owners for the pet market. In addition to the mostly practiced artificial incubation of the eggs, there are even reports of successful natural broods in German gardens. The European Studbook Foundation maintains stud books for both subspecies of the Greek tortoise.
A turtle hatch
half an hour later
after two and a half hours
Individual evidence
- ↑ F. de Lapparent de Broin, R. Bour, J. F. Parham, J. Perälä: Eurotestudo, a new genus for the species Testudo hermanni Gmelin, 1789 (Chelonii, Testudinidae). In: Comptes Rendus Palevol. 5, No. 6, 2006 ( doi : 10.1016 / j.crpv.2006.03.002 ), pp. 803-811.
- ↑ a b c U. Fritz, M. Auer, A. Bertolero, A. Heylan, T. Fattizzo, A. K. Hundsdorfer, M. M. Sampayo, J. L. Pretus, P. Siroky, M. Wink: A rangewide phylogeography of Hermann's tortoise, Testudo hermanni (Reptilia: Testudines: Testudinidae): implications for taxonomy. (PDF file; 1.77 MB) In: Zoologica scripta. 35, No. 5, 2006 ( doi : 10.1111 / j.1463-6409.2006.00242.x ), pp. 531-543.
- ↑ Testudo hermanni in the CITES species database (English)
- ↑ J. Perälä: Biodiversity in relatively neglected taxa of Testudo L., 1758 sl In: B. Fertard, B. Culorier (eds.): Actes du Congrès International sur le genre Testudo - 7 au 10 mars 2001. SOPTOM, Gonfaron 2002 ( Chelonii. Volume 3), pp. 40-53.
- ↑ Search for "Testudo" in the CITES species database (English)
- ↑ Bert T. Eendebak: Incubation period and sex ratio of Hermann's tortoise, Testudo hermanni boettgeri. In: Chelonian Conservation and Biology. 1, No. 3, Lunenburg / Mass January 1995, ISSN 1071-8443 , pp. 227-230.
- ^ P. Galeotti, R. Sacchi, D. Pellitteri, R. & M. Fasola: Female preference for fast-rate, high-pitched calls in Hermann's tortoises Testudo hermanni. In: Behavioral Ecology. 16, No. 1, Oxford 2005 ( doi : 10.1093 / beheco / arh165 )
- ^ A b A. Hailey, R. E. Willemsen: Changes in the status of tortoise populations in Greece 1984-2001. In: Biodiversity and Conservation. 12, No. 5, London 2003, ISSN 0960-3115 , pp. 991-1011.
- ^ A. Hailey, RE Willemsen: Population density and adult sex ratio of the tortoise Testudo hermanni in Greece, evidence for intrinsic population regulation. In: The Journal of the Linnean Society of London - Zoology. No. 251, London 2000 ( doi : 10.1017 / S0952836900007068 ), pp. 325-338.
- ↑ Art. 4 Paragraph 1 (Import) and Art. 8 Paragraph 1 (Marketing) Regulation (EC) No. 338/97
- ↑ "strictly protected" according to §7 para. 2 no. 14 Federal Nature Conservation Act ; Offense according to §71 para. 1 no. 3 (import) or Section 71 (2) (marketing) of the Federal Nature Conservation Act
- ↑ tortugues.cat
- ↑ http://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/penelopes-geese/
- ↑ Minimum requirements for keeping reptiles, report prepared on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests, 1997, p. 66
- ^ "Diet of the Greek Tortoise", Wikipedia book
- ↑ Carolin Dennert: Diet of tortoises. Natur und Tier Verlag, Münster 2001, ISBN 3-931587-53-3 .
- ↑ Carolin Dennert: Diet of tortoises. Natur und Tier Verlag, Münster, 2001, p. 33f.
- ^ Dost, Uwe (2006): Greek tortoises , Herpeton-Verlag
literature
- Marc Cheylan: Testudo hermanni GMELIN, 1789 - Greek tortoise. In: Uwe Fritz (Ed.): Tortoises (Testudines) I (Bataguridae, Testudinidae, Emydidae). (= Handbook of Reptiles and Amphibians in Europe. Volume 3, Part 3a). Aula, Wiebelsheim 2001, ISBN 3-89104-004-0 , pp. 179-289.
- Uwe Dost: Greek tortoises. Maintenance and propagation. Herpeton, Offenbach 2006, ISBN 3-936180-19-9 .
- Holger Vetter: Greek tortoise, Dalmatian and Italian tortoise. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-89973-502-1 .
- Wolfgang Wegehaupt: Natural keeping and breeding of the Greek tortoise. 2nd Edition. Wegehaupt, Kressbronn 2006, ISBN 3-9809774-2-0 .
- Greek tortoise (Testudo hermanni) - diet with wild herbs in Central Europe. Wikipedia book: Wikipedia: Books / Nutrition of the Greek Tortoise .
- Rainer Zirngibl: Greek tortoises. Ruhmannsfelden 2000, ISBN 3-933646-20-0 .
Web links
- Testudo hermanni in the Red List of Endangered Species of the IUCN 2009. Posted by: P. P. van Dijk u. a., 2004. Retrieved December 7, 2009.
- Testudo hermanni in The Reptile Database
- Photos of the Greek tortoise on www.herp.it (English)
- Species conservation project in Bulgaria (English)
- Species protection project in Garriguella, Northern Spain (Spanish)
- Species conservation project in Gonfaron, southern France (French, Adobe Flash required)
- Species protection project in Corsica (French)
- Valley of the Turtles in Sorède, South of France (French)
- Photos of the Greek tortoise on www.blendewahl.com
