NEWS102
4
Turtles
LeopardTortoises fromZambia fromegg toadult.The carapace color is veryvariable,above left a“high
yellow”specimen.
Photo:ChristophFritz,www.reptilia24.com
he Leopard Tortoise occurs from
South Africa to southern Sudan. It
has been recorded from the following
countries (fromnorth to south): southern
Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda,
Tanzania, Ruanda, Burundi, D. R. Congo,
Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique,
Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Swaziland,
and South Africa. However, some of the
reports are dubious, and others probably
relate to human introductions, but even
when this is taken into account the
species still has an enormously large
distribution.
Subspecies?
Two subspecies are formally recognized
by many scientists, the northern
Stigmochelys pardalis
babcocki and the
southern
S. p. pardalis
. But the large
varietyof forms amongLeopardTortoises
T
The Leopard Tortoise,
Stigmochelys pardalis
, is the definitive tortoise of
theBlackContinent,withnumerousdifferentpopulationswithin itshuge
distribution region.
Littlegiants fromZambia
byChristophFritz,www.reptilia24.com
means that thisdivision is incorrect.There
are marked local differences even within
the subspecies’ distributions. So far
geneticstudieshave failed toproduceany
data
that
can
be
interpreted
unequivocally.Soatpresent thereare two
opposing camps: one that regards the
speciesknownas the“LeopardTortoise”as
being appreciably more differentiated
and which would erect more than two
subspecies; and the other, which regards
such an undertaking as senseless given
thewide spectrum of individual variation
and doesn’t accept any subspecies at all
for
Stigmochelys pardalis
. These academic
discussionsareof littlepractical interest to
terrariumenthusiasts.Farmore important
is an awareness that the LeopardTortoise
grows to different sizes depending on
population concerned, and also has
different climatic requirements!
Eaten small
Of course eventual size is of enormous
practical importance. Leopard Tortoises
are ratheractiveand requirea lotof space.
The largest Leopard Tortoises known to
date originate from Ethiopia, where they
can attain a carapace lengthof almost 80
cmandaweightwell inexcessof 40kilos!
Such giants require a huge amount of
maintenance.At theotherendof thescale
we have real dwarfs in the form of the
specimens currently being imported
regularly fromZambia.Thesegrow toonly
25-35 cm long; females grow larger than
males, attaining 30 cm on average. The
Zambian form of the Leopard Tortoise is
thus nobigger than the largest European
tortoise, theMarginated Tortoise,
Testudo
marginata
. Even so, a Leopard Tortoise
weight considerably more than a
European tortoise of the same size, as
Stigmochely
s is significantly higher-
backed.On thebasisof theold subspecies
model, the Zambian Leopard Tortoise
belongs to
S.p.babcocki
. In theevent that
S. p. pardalis
is offered for sale then it
might be very interesting for the
terrarium enthusiast with a large garden,
as these tortoises originate from South
Africa, and because of the subtropical
climate of that country, where there is
generally frost and snowfall inwinter, can
be kept outside in open-air terrariums
from spring to autumn, almost like
European tortoises. There are again huge
size differences between the individual
SouthAfricanpopulations; they cangrow
to between 30 and 70 cm long, with the
normbeing35 - 50 cm.
Lexicon
LeopardTortoise
Stigmochelys:
means“patterned tortoise”
pardalis:
means“panther-like”
babcocki:
named inhonor ofH.L.Babcock
(1886-1953).
