# Wild leopard tortoise



## Balls (Dec 3, 2012)

Spotted this guy over the weekend on a trip to Saint Lucia


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## luvpetz27 (Dec 3, 2012)

He is amazing! I went to Saint Lucia on my honeymoon!!!.....beautiful place!


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## Katherine (Dec 4, 2012)

He looks to be so clean for a wild tortoise! Where about did you spot him, are you confident that he was not an owned animal? Very cool- I would love to see them in wild.


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## Balls (Dec 4, 2012)

luvpetz27 said:


> He is amazing! I went to Saint Lucia on my honeymoon!!!.....beautiful place!



Yes it is..!! You do know I mean St Lucia in South Africa not the Carribean Island.. 

Its a wet land thats a UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site..



Katherine said:


> He looks to be so clean for a wild tortoise! Where about did you spot him, are you confident that he was not an owned animal? Very cool- I would love to see them in wild.



Yes quiet sure hes not an owned animal and quiet wild.. Unless the animals below are also owned  
(apologies for non-tortoise photos below)..


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## yagyujubei (Dec 4, 2012)

WOW....I saw a squirrel yesterday.


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## Tom (Dec 4, 2012)

So you are saying that you photographed this wild leopard tortoise in a natural "wet land" area????????


You have no idea the smile you just put on my face.......... For years I have been arguing with ANYONE who will listen (and some that won't) the leopard tortoises are NOT a desert species, and they do NOT need dry arid enclosures. Most of the books, websites and "experts" over here are still calling these "desert" animals and recommending they be kept in dry enclosures with little or no humidity. Hence the incorrect post on your other thread about the glass tanks.

Thank you. You have no idea the favor you just did for leopard tortoises around the world. And thanks for the great pics too.


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## Balls (Dec 4, 2012)

Tom said:


> So you are saying that you photographed this wild leopard tortoise in a natural "wet land" area????????
> 
> 
> You have no idea the smile you just put on my face.......... For years I have been arguing with ANYONE who will listen (and some that won't) the leopard tortoises are NOT a desert species, and they do NOT need dry arid enclosures. Most of the books, websites and "experts" over here are still calling these "desert" animals and recommending they be kept in dry enclosures with little or no humidity. Hence the incorrect post on your other thread about the glass tanks.
> ...



Yes St Lucia is a sub tropical area, on the east coast of South Africa..definately not desert. What they also define as "desert" might be what we call "bushveld" which is a dry grassland further in the country. 
We are very very far away from anything like actualy "desert".. and a few hundred miles away from drier land.. 

There are plenty Leopard tortoises in this sub tropical area.. with regards to being dry and no humidity.. its rained like 320mm of rain in October alone.. humidity is 70%-85% at the moment.. soon it will be 100% humidity easy over late December/January..

This guy was near Lake St Lucia, the surrounding area is wetland..

You can check it out here..

http://www.stlucia.co.za/info.htm


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## Neal (Dec 4, 2012)

Great pictures.

That tortoise has some very slight raising of the scutes though. (Just be'in silly)


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## Yellow Turtle (Dec 4, 2012)

Those are beautiful pictures and it's good to learn more of leopard native habitat. Thanks.


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## Katherine (Dec 4, 2012)

Wonderful photographs; every single one of them. Thank you so much for sharing this with us!




Neal said:


> Great pictures.
> 
> That tortoise has some very slight raising of the scutes though. (Just be'in silly)



Silly but accurate; I hit the super zoom on that too


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## Yvonne G (Dec 4, 2012)

yagyujubei said:


> WOW....I saw a squirrel yesterday.



LOL!!!!!


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## Balls (Dec 4, 2012)

Pleasure guys..

Come visit us on holiday


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## luvpetz27 (Dec 4, 2012)

Ha!! Actually had honeymoon at "Sandles" in Saint Lucia....not the wetland!!! 
So funny! I would love to be where you are.....just not on my honeymoon
  

AMAZING pictures!! Wow!!! Just priceless!


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## spikethebest (Dec 4, 2012)

thanks for the pics, and I agree with Tom 100%! Job well done!!!!


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## Zamric (Dec 4, 2012)

Tom said:


> So you are saying that you photographed this wild leopard tortoise in a natural "wet land" area????????
> 
> 
> You have no idea the smile you just put on my face.......... For years I have been arguing with ANYONE who will listen (and some that won't) the leopard tortoises are NOT a desert species, and they do NOT need dry arid enclosures. Most of the books, websites and "experts" over here are still calling these "desert" animals and recommending they be kept in dry enclosures with little or no humidity. Hence the incorrect post on your other thread about the glass tanks.
> ...



That would explain why Eros and Gaia are thriving so well in their Enclosure! It's darn near TROPICAL in there!


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## Tom (Dec 4, 2012)

I would love to see more pictures of the habitat in the area, or any similar area where these tortoises occur. Do you have any wider shots?

Thank you for the info and pictures. I've got to look that area up on a map. I wonder how close I was to that. We didn't go up the west coast much. We were in Stellenbosch, Sommerset West, Milnerton, Kraafontein, Tokai Forest, Hout Bay, and we caravanned up to George to shoot the exteriors. I was traveling with the boss and his fiancÃ©, so I quickly made friends with the locals and had the distinct privilege of hanging out with them and getting to see the real RSA outside of the touristy areas. I saw quite a few wild tortoises and none of the areas I was in could even remotely be called "desert".


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## Balls (Dec 4, 2012)

Tom said:


> I would love to see more pictures of the habitat in the area, or any similar area where these tortoises occur. Do you have any wider shots?
> 
> Thank you for the info and pictures. I've got to look that area up on a map. I wonder how close I was to that. We didn't go up the west coast much. We were in Stellenbosch, Sommerset West, Milnerton, Kraafontein, Tokai Forest, Hout Bay, and we caravanned up to George to shoot the exteriors. I was traveling with the boss and his fiancÃ©, so I quickly made friends with the locals and had the distinct privilege of hanging out with them and getting to see the real RSA outside of the touristy areas. I saw quite a few wild tortoises and none of the areas I was in could even remotely be called "desert".



How long ago was that Tom?

Ok so basically you were on the west coast, we are on the east and where I took these photos is pretty much the furtherest point away from where you were that you can get... 

Now as mentioned before this area that I took the photos is sub tropical and hardly a desert, and there are lots of leopard tortoises here.. it rained over 1000mm just in the last year. 

The area that you were in which is the Western Cape the climite is more similar to the mediterranean.

The rest apart from the only desert which is the famous Kalahari is what we call "veld" which is drier grasslands..now the guys might be right about the humidity because in winter it does get dry, the grass and landscape is very brown in winters..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veld

Also confusingly there is an area called the bushveld now this is subtropical forests and covers a vast region too up into Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Basically the further up you go it is just going to get wetter as its closer to the equator and it ends up being full jungle.

There are some desert areas.. but yes I believe they are very wrong when they say the leopard tortoise is a desert tortoise.. far from it lives in many varied areas from super wet humid areas like my example St Lucia to quite dry like the "highveld".. you can best view this as a savanna.. with less trees.  Alot of the interior is semi arid.. but its NOT desert.

Ok hopefully that explains things somewhat.. just remember its the "veld" areas thats more likely to be home to these tortoises..


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## Nami The tortoise (Dec 4, 2012)

Wow, I love the colors of it. Pretty!


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## mattgrizzlybear (Dec 4, 2012)

yagyujubei said:


> WOW....I saw a squirrel yesterday.



Are you kidding me?! I saw a squirrel too! Very cool pics!


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## Baoh (Dec 4, 2012)

Cool. Thanks for sharing.


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## wellington (Dec 4, 2012)

Fantastic pics and info. I heard Tom yelling and seen his pearly whites shining through that ear to ear smile when he read your thread and posts, and i live in Chicago I think it's fantastic the knowledge you gave us in the pic and info. Any info you can give us from the leopard area, vegetation, etc, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.


BTW, all the pics are beautiful


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## kytuan (Dec 4, 2012)

nice color on your leopard


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## Tom (Dec 4, 2012)

Balls said:


> How long ago was that Tom?



My first trip was in '99 to the Jo'berg area for about two weeks. The trip I described was March-June 05'. We had some really hot humid days in March and April, but we had some seriously cold days in June. It is an amazing place. I really enjoyed my time there. Several times, my friends and I were planing to drive from George up to Durban. We just never got the opportunity. They told me that the climate was very different up there. Much warmer and closer to "tropical" conditions. They really made it sound great and I'm sorry I never made it up there. We were working six days a week and sometimes 14-16 hour days, so it was really hard to get away anywhere far. I mostly did a ton of exploring in the wild areas where we were working. Had lots of down time but had to stay close.


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