# Texas/Calif



## Yvonne G (May 4, 2011)

A little over 42 years ago Mrs. X was given an adult female Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri). She already had an adult male CDT (Gopherus agassizii). A year later there was a clutch of eggs and one male was kept from that clutch. The CDT died and subsequent eggs were from the Texas female and the 50/50 male. This is a picture of the whole group that Mrs. X gave me last week. The original female is the tortoise on the far left, and the 50/50 male is the tortoise on the far right.







It is interesting to note that all the subsequent tortoises from this pairing look like Texas tortoises, with the exception that all of them have a nuchal scute (a CDT trait).

This is a picture of the group, but I put my male CDT in front of them for size comparison:






Here is the female on the left and the male on the right:










I just checked the babies that I'm raising from this paring and they also have the nuchal scute. But the funny thing is, last year I adopted two babies from a Fresno club member who has Texas tortoises, and those two babies also have the nuchal scute. Go figure.


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## TortieLuver (May 4, 2011)

Wow, what a great posting. I've always wondered about the fertility rate/success of eggs hatching in circumstances like this one.


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## Tortuga_terrestre (May 4, 2011)

Love your collection...How many deserts do you have? Total?


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## Skyler Nell (May 4, 2011)

Very interesting...
and that sure is a nice little group of torts!
I wouldn't mind taking a few off your hands 
haha


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## GBtortoises (May 4, 2011)

I'm thinking a new subspecies here: _Gopherus berlandagazz yvonnegi_

What do you think?


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## Yvonne G (May 4, 2011)

GBtortoises said:


> I'm thinking a new subspecies here: _Gopherus berlandagazz yvonnegi_
> 
> What do you think?



LOL!! I love it. I've always wished I had an animal species named for me.

Truthfully, though, I'm real sorry there aren't any full-blooded males in the group. I don't like to continue interbreeding them. And I THOUGHT the babies I got from her were 100%. Bummer.



Tortuga_terrestre said:


> Love your collection...How many deserts do you have? Total?



I have one male and 4 females, two of which are permanent members and two of which I'll adopt out to the right home.

I now have 3.4.6 Texas/CDT hybrids, two babies of which I'm holding for someone. But I'm seriously considering adopting out the males if I can find another 100% Texas male.


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## GBtortoises (May 4, 2011)

I think the subspecies name has a nice ring to it!


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## Yvonne G (May 4, 2011)

GBtortoises said:


> I think the subspecies name has a nice ring to it!



I particularly like the "berlandagazz" portion.


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## Tortuga_terrestre (May 4, 2011)

Tortuga_terrestre said:


> Love your collection...How many deserts do you have? Total?



I have one male and 4 females, two of which are permanent members and two of which I'll adopt out to the right home.

I now have 3.4.6 Texas/CDT hybrids, two babies of which I'm holding for someone. But I'm seriously considering adopting out the males if I can find another 100% Texas male.
[/quote]

Im sure you can find awesome homes on the forum. If I were looking for a Desert; I would so adopt an Adult. Hatchlings are so fragile...Fernando the CDT was so full energy and a pleasure to have around (Candy can vouch for me). Fernando made a 5 foot deep burrow in my backyard! I sure do miss him. If I had a bigger yard and could seperate my leopard and the desert...I would be on my way to your house right now =).


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## ALDABRAMAN (May 5, 2011)

Interesting.


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