If yours hasn't hibernated before, I wouldn't go back to a full lenght hibernation straight away.
It's the nature of a Russian tortoise to hibernate, it's healthy, but you don't want to do it because it makes you nervous? Isn't that an odd reasoning in some respect?
I'd be very interested in a source which claims and shows rhinos with no horns.
You see in elephant populations that under poaching pressure the proportion of elephants without tusks increases, but that hasn't so much to do with evolution, but more with them not being shot, so their share of the...
If you apply the biological definition that if 2 animals can produce fertile offspring, then yes. But most species would hold up under multiple species definitions, and these wouldn't.
Then, there is also the good practice of keeping populations pure, and these two rarely, if ever, cross-breed...
Not necessarily so. That species in the same genus can interbreed, but not produce fertile offspring, and species in different genera can't interbreed, is not how species and genera defined by most species concepts. There are several different species concepts, and none manages to capture all...
Since you live in the UAE, do you have the possibility to keep it outside? Save from cats, rats and birds, and with shady spots and sun. And plenty places to hide, preferably vegetation, which keeps the humidity higher.
That makes sense, the micro-climate in their niche is different from the meteorological data.
I guess that also answers the question of the topic starter. No need to worry if they spend a day or so under ground.
They occur in Zakouma National Park in Sudan. In January, the coldest month the high there is around 86, the low around 63, in June, the hottest month it;s 82-106. In burrows, where they likely spent quite a bit of time in the colder months (December-January) it will probably be a bit warmer...
Just to add. They are protected in Zambia, if you want to keep it in Zambia, you need to get a permit from DNPW in Chilanga. They are taking their wildlife laws seriously. Yes there is poaching, but there are also strict laws, and high convictions rates when caught.
No European tortoise should be 10 inch by 3 or 4 years, western hermann's mature at smaller sizes, and they shouldn't reach maturity at that young ages, and maturity in tortoise is largely related to size.
In reference to them rarely growing to 10 inches (and males never), you write:
"Actually...
You wrote:
I read that as you mean that after 3 or 4 years they should be 10 inches or close to it, yet Western Hermann's usually only get 5 or 6 inches, males even smaller. And they don't reach that after 3 or 4 years, tortoises don't mature that quickly.