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Leopard tortoises

Several youngs of the Leopard tortoise have born.

In our zoo we keep (as probably the only breeders in Europe) the South African subspecies of Geochelone pardalis pardalis that inhabits the harsh tablelands called karroo. The subspecies is rarely kept as pet (contrastingly to the East African subspecies G. p. babcocki that often appears in the breeds and also the breeding of the young ones of this subspecies is far from problematic). Our tortoises (two males, three females) come from the breeding and conservation station in South Africa and arrived in November 2003. On the 8th January 2005 one of the females (called Coffee Plateau after the shape of the shell) laid 8 eggs (round with the diameter of 4.5 cm) and the breeders placed them into the hatchery. The tortoises laid eggs last year as well; nevertheless the breeding was not successful. This time we employed a special trick – in a certain phase of the incubation we cooled the eggs by ten degrees. This method is not mentioned anywhere in the literature, however it copies the way the eggs are hatched in the wild where the eggs also have to undergo a period of coolness. In our practice, after the eggs had been in the hatchery for two months, we lowered the temperature for the following two months (i.e. from the middle of March to the middle of May) from 31 oC to 21–23 oC and then we increased it back to the original level. The humidity remained the same and in order to prevent the condensed steam from falling down on the eggs during the cold period we covered them with a thin layer of vermiculite (which is a special substrate that we use for hatching the eggs of reptiles).

On the 23rd July out of the 8 eggs 5 young tortoises hatched (for the first time in the history of the Prague zoo) and they measured 5 cm. The adult animals have the shell of 40-60 cm and they weigh 20 kg. One of the eggs was necrotic and out of the remaining two eggs the tortoises still might get hatched. This unique success proves the chosen method practised by our breeders right and thanks to that we might have more successful breedings in the future. The young tortoises have bulging bottom parts of the shell as they absorb the yolk pouch. As soon as they digest it the shell gets flattened and the little tortoises start to eat solid food. This happens after about a week. They are solely herbivorous and in the zoo they get mainly green leaves, from dandelions to napa cabbage.



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