Four-toed tortoise
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| Four-toed tortoise | ||||||||||||
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Four toe tortoise ( Testudo horsfieldii ) in Baikonur, Kazakhstan. |
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| Testudo horsfieldii | ||||||||||||
| Gray , 1844 |
The four- toed tortoise ( Testudo horsfieldii , syn .: Agrionemys horsfieldii ), also called steppe tortoise or Russian tortoise , is a species of the tortoise family . Until 1966 this turtle was placed exclusively in the genus Testudo , while the assignment to the monotypic genus Agrionemys was later increasingly accepted. The turtle species is common in Russia and Central Asia and was first scientifically described by John Edward Gray in 1844 .
Appearance
Characteristic of the four-toed tortoise is the oval to circular back armor, which is overall significantly flatter than that of all other Testudo species. The color ranges from yellow to olive to brown or ocher with dark spots of different sizes. Very old animals can be almost black (Afghanistan), but also yellow-brown with almost no drawing. The soft tissues are yellow to brown, sometimes even slightly greenish, the tail shield is undivided and, in contrast to the other Testudo species, there are basically only four toes with very strong claws on the strong front legs. The male's tail ends with a small horn nail. The species reaches a size of 15 cm (males) to about 25 cm, very rarely 28 cm body length (females) and then weighs between half a kilogram and two kilograms. In males, the belly armor is also concave, and these have a longer and thicker tail.
distribution and habitat
The animals inhabit five subspecies in the region east of the Caspian Sea via Kazakhstan , Uzbekistan , Tajikistan , Turkmenistan and south to eastern Iran , northern Afghanistan , Pakistan and western Balochistan and into western China. According to its main distribution area, it is an Asian species. However, there is an occurrence south of Samara , which would make this the most northerly testudine.
The four-toed tortoise is also called the steppe tortoise , because it lives in extremely arid , sometimes stony regions as well as clay steppes. But also steppe areas in the vicinity of oases and grassy areas near springs and rivers. A third name - namely Russian tortoise - is still in use as the main exporting countries Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were for a long time part of the Russian Empire and then the Soviet Union . From the 1970s and 1980s until today, the animals were and are collected in large quantities and exported.
Way of life
The strong claws on the strong forelegs and the flat shell allow the four-toed tortoise to dig up to four meters long tunnels that are used repeatedly. At night, when it is very hot, during the summer and winter dormancy, it retreats into these, as they offer protection from predators and the temperatures in the earth remain relatively constant. You can often see them sitting at the cave entrance in the morning when the weather is uncertain. In the distribution area there is a hot and dry summer, humid and ice-cold continental climate in winter. This is characterized by large daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations of up to 40 ° C, with rainfall often completely absent in midsummer. These circumstances require the animals to be extremely adaptable in their barren habitats.
The hibernation lasts until mid or late March and thus up to 6 months. As hard and cold as the winters are, the warm season comes in quickly and seamlessly with an abundance of plants at first. These turtles only have three to five months to eat, grow and reproduce. With the heat already increasing in early summer and the onset of drought, the search for food becomes more and more difficult during the day, so that the morning and evening hours have to be used for this. In midsummer it is so hot and dry in many habitats that the animals retreat to a one to two month summer rest ( estivation ) due to lack of food and the heat and, if at all, only reappear in September. They use the short period up to hibernation again for extensive foraging, until they go back to hibernation in mid to late October due to the nightly, often very strong minus temperatures.
In the wild, enormous areas are sometimes populated. 10 hectares for a male and up to 30 hectares for a female are common. The turtles therefore rarely meet each other. It is precisely these circumstances that make the steppe tortoise a highly specialized species that cannot cope with the usual way of keeping a European tortoise species in the long term.
Reproduction
Whenever a male sees a female, it approaches the female in advertising. With his neck stretched out and his head up and down, the potential mating partner walks around his chosen one. Finally he bites her forelegs to force her to stand still. The males usually have a much longer tail with a horny tail nail, which can cause serious injuries in the cloacal region if the female tries to mate too often. During copulation, the male takes an almost vertical position behind the female. At the same time the male opens its mouth, the red fleshy tongue becomes visible, and it emits beeping sounds. The females lay eggs that are surprisingly large about two to four weeks after mating, usually 2–5 (up to a maximum of 9) pieces. These are oblong-oval in shape, about 35-40 millimeters long and about 15-20 g in weight. The almost round young hatch with artificial incubation of the eggs at 28–32 ° C after sixty to a maximum of 100 days. A single successful mating is enough to fertilize the eggs for several clutches. For this reason, and because of the males' enormous, almost annoying desire to mate, it makes sense to keep males and females separate from each other outside of the actual mating season in human care in order to ensure a stress-free husbandry.
attitude
The extremely poor natural living conditions are so firmly anchored in the animals that they use all of the food they can get even when they are in human care. This is why they are particularly prone to obesity. This can go so far that the soft tissues bulge out of the shell and ultimately they die of fatty liver. They also feed at relatively low temperatures. Their appetite is enormous, especially in spring. The main diet must therefore be a controlled amount of a balanced mixture of wild herbs that are rich in crude fiber and the hay made from them. Depending on the natural habitat, the food supply should become less and less and more crude fiber in the summer. Salad should only be used in exceptional cases (too low in fiber, low in vitamins and minerals, too high in protein). When choosing the forage plants, it is particularly important to have a high proportion of crude fiber over 20 percent and a relatively low protein proportion of less than 10 percent. Fruit and vegetables do not belong on the menu. In addition, the animals are dependent on an adequate supply of calcium . In the wild, this happens through soil containing minerals, bones or snail shells. In human care, sepia pulp or boiled eggshells should be offered separately for gnawing, which at the same time also keeps the hornbill in the right shape.
Protection status and exposure
Since 1975 this species has been subject to the Washington Convention on Endangered Species, where it was listed in Appendix II. The EU Species Protection Ordinance lists the species in Appendix B. It follows that it may only change hands as offspring and only with a certificate of origin, which shows where and when the turtle was bred. Furthermore, the animals within the EU must be reported to the locally responsible species protection authority (= free of charge).
The IUCN classifies the four-toed tortoise as "endangered" (VU, vulnerable).
Remarks
- The four- toed tortoise is considered by some scientists of the monotypic genus Agrionemys. added. However, it is mainly used as the Testudo horsfieldii. designated
- A stud book is kept for this species at the European Studbook Foundation .
photos
A case of convergence. Gopherus flavomarginata (above) and Testudo horsfieldii (below). Both have the flat armor and the powerful arms
The scarce tanks make digging in the ground easier. This makes the soft tissues particularly visible.
Four strong toes
The young animals break through the egg not at the poles, but in the middle
Young animals: A clear central keel on the back armor is reminiscent of the appearance of earlier ancestors
The growth rings of this four-toed tortoise are light green
1.3 Agrionemys horsfieldii
The almost flat black belly armor is typical of many specimens of Testudo horsfieldii
Males (middle) and two females
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Testudo horsfieldii in The Reptile Database ; Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ↑ Manfred Rogner: Tortoises - biology, keeping, reproduction. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008, p. 77 ISBN 978-3-8001-5440-1
literature
- Indraneil Das: The turtles of the Indian subcontinent. Edition Chimaira, Frankfurt am Main 2001 ISBN 3-930612-35-6
- Manfred Rogner: Tortoises - biology, keeping, reproduction. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2008 ISBN 978-3-8001-5440-1
- Ude Fass: The keeping of the steppe tortoises Agrionemys horsfieldii - fascinating animals from arid areas. Kleintierverlag, Biebertal 2013 ISBN 978-3-9811212-8-5 .
Web links
- Testudo horsfieldii in The Reptile Database
- An article worth reading about the way of life of Testudo horsfieldii in the habitat on the website of the "Interest group Testudo horsfieldii".
- A website about keeping and breeding the steppe tortoise. The author describes his attitude and also goes into his own experiences, developments and improvements.
- A website that deals in particular with the physiology of the steppe tortoises, their needs and typical husbandry-related diseases. Also or especially a well-suited site for beginners.
- Testudo horsfieldii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Tortoise & Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, 1996. Retrieved on 11 May, 2006.