Can't stop me!

[Turtlepete]

Fantastic construction, Kelly. Very impressed. I'm incredibly curious what these new species your expecting are. They would have to be a high humidity/warm climate species?….Very curious indeed .

 

[Berkeley]

Dang Kelly- those guys look great in there! You've given me some great inspiration for the inside of my barn! I need to waterproof/plastic the inside of mine, but most likely I will just wait until we move and do it all to my specifications in a new place.

Man, that looks awesome. Great job!
--Berkeley

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Are plants the next step?? It's a green house so I'm assuming it wouldn't stay bare, right?

 

[Turtlepete]

My guess is no bother for plants in the Manouria pen . They'll all be gone anyways, haha.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

But plants make

My guess is no bother for plants in the Manouria pen . They'll all be gone anyways, haha.

But plants make things sooo pretty

 

[tortadise]

Are plants the next step?? It's a green house so I'm assuming it wouldn't stay bare, right?

Well it is kinda bare in there. Manouria eat everything. Am not kidding toxic or not they will eat it. So I was toying with the idea of making a planter in the middle of the pens and putting some plants they can't get to. Still have some minor touches on the building to do. Like ledges for potted plants and stuff like that. So plants for sure will be integrated in somewhere in there.

 

[DutchieAmanda]

Great enclosure! I'm a little bit jealous...
Maybe you can put some hanging pots (not sure if that's the proper english word?) on the walls of the house to put plants in they can't reach?

 

[juli11]

Yes manouria. Cool very very cool. And they directly breed

 

[Oxalis]

Awesome tortoise castle!! Have they enjoyed exploring?

 

[tortadise]

Fantastic construction, Kelly. Very impressed. I'm incredibly curious what these new species your expecting are. They would have to be a high humidity/warm climate species?….Very curious indeed .

Thanks. The mystery torts are actually not high humidity at all. The quandary continues. Muahaha

 

[tortadise]

Awesome tortoise castle!! Have they enjoyed exploring?

Very much so. Dearth the phayrei, is a turd butt sand which. He likes to scrap the leaves and mulch into the pond. And those ponds are 4' by almost 5' 5-6" deep. So it's a lot of work when he does that. He does it in any enclosure he's in. Quite a character he is.

 

[Turtlepete]

Thanks. The mystery torts are actually not high humidity at all. The quandary continues. Muahaha

Wow, okay. That opens up a lot of guesses…..My only two guesses were either the one Intotestudo you don't have (or do you?), and then impressa….But that just totally threw those ideas out the window. I assumed they would be high humidity, being in the Manouria room….Hmmm…

And from there I'd guess something crazy like Psammobates or Homopus that nobody in the US has, but Im pretty sure being in the Manouria room would nearly kill those guys….

The quandary does indeed continue. Haha.

 

[tortadise]

Well the enclosure the special guys will be in sealed off. But humidity is of no concern really. That building stays around 60% right now but has moist substrate. Impressa are currently with a friend up north. Hoping to get eggs in a few years from them actually. Travancorica actually are a dry species of indotestudo. They are found in a very weird rocky dry substrate area, but ambient hi humidity. Your guesses are quite good though.

 

[Turtlepete]

Ohhh, I see. You posted a picture of the thermometer with a hygrometer, and it read 90s and 100% humidity, I now realize that was your greenhouse and not the Manouria Mansion. I was thinking, no way, 100% humidity would probably kill those other guys….
Now I am really, really curious….. Wish you the best of luck!

Do you work with Travencoria, or know anyone that does? Elongata are common enough, and forstenii rare but still possible to acquire, yet I have only seen one captive Travencore on this forum, the guy from ATC, Mr. Hermes I believe? Shame they aren't more common. I've heard they were imported along with elongata and forstenii in mass numbers yet nobody could tell the difference.

 

[tortadise]

Ohhh, I see. You posted a picture of the thermometer with a hygrometer, and it read 90s and 100% humidity, I now realize that was your greenhouse and not the Manouria Mansion. I was thinking, no way, 100% humidity would probably kill those other guys….
Now I am really, really curious….. Wish you the best of luck!

Do you work with Travencoria, or know anyone that does? Elongata are common enough, and forstenii rare but still possible to acquire, yet I have only seen one captive Travencore on this forum, the guy from ATC, Mr. Hermes I believe? Shame they aren't more common. I've heard they were imported along with elongata and forstenii in mass numbers yet nobody could tell the difference.

I had some offspring back in the day from zovikian but lost them to a long long story of a bad decision with a "friend". The pure travancore are very very rare here. Even in Europe they're very rare but more common there here, I know of 3 legal shipments from 1960-1980s from India of those guys. I speak with the curator here and there over I. India that works with them I. There natural range. They only have 8 total specimens in there care for captive reproduction. They are a very very endangered numbered animal. Somewhere less than yniphora wild numbers are close to travancore total numbers in the world. A very forgotten and little talked about species for sure.

But yes the "greenhouse" is ridiculous. When wearing glasses it's very difficult to keep them uncovered from the hot extreme humid environment in there. When acquired I will let everyone one what the "special" species are. For sure extremely rare in the United States and Europe in collections.

 

[Turtlepete]

I had some offspring back in the day from zovikian but lost them to a long long story of a bad decision with a "friend". The pure travancore are very very rare here. Even in Europe they're very rare but more common there here, I know of 3 legal shipments from 1960-1980s from India of those guys. I speak with the curator here and there over I. India that works with them I. There natural range. They only have 8 total specimens in there care for captive reproduction. They are a very very endangered numbered animal. Somewhere less than yniphora wild numbers are close to travancore total numbers in the world. A very forgotten and little talked about species for sure.

But yes the "greenhouse" is ridiculous. When wearing glasses it's very difficult to keep them uncovered from the hot extreme humid environment in there. When acquired I will let everyone one what the "special" species are. For sure extremely rare in the United States and Europe in collections.

Wow. I suspected they were in dire straits, but thats even worse then I imagined. Its so sad to see these species that just sort of get thrown to the wayside, nobody talks about, and nobody puts any conservation effort into. There seem to be very many of those, sadly….Hope there are conservation programs out there somewhere for them. Does zovickian still have his founder animals?

The greenhouse sounds like South FL in the summer after a thunderstorm, haha. So humid you feel almost like you are "drinking" the air . Looking forward to solving this mystery .

 

[tortadise]

No mark bells bought them from zovik and rarely ever offers offspring. The thing with that species is they are just like yniphoria and have a very very remote tiny natural range. So even with protected lands it will take 1000s of years for them to sustain a great population. Even without poaching and human involvement they still run the risks I nature. Predation, suitable ecosystem limitations too. Oasis type ecosystems they're found in done grow overnight to allow a range to expand. So really I'd say millions of years instead of thousands to allow adaptation and evolving to either surviving different climates or failing and becoming exctinct. Same goes with the geometric tortoise. There range is so small and diverse from anything. In South Africa they're really a species that will always be so critically fragile even if protected against human presence. Which they are highly guarded more so than any species I'd say actually and still census less than any yniphoria population world wide(wild and captive specimens combined) but they remain stable with extreme conservation.

 

[Turtlepete]

Oh I see…..Man, species like that are so interesting to me. Kind of like Coahulian boxies, right? They come only from the Cuatro Cie'negas Basin (no way I spelled that right…) in Coahulia, Mexico. Restricted range, they are completely dependent upon a single type of habitat. Very interesting. It's even more interesting with these species whose survival isn't even threatened by humans, or at least foremost by humans (as I doubt any of the former exist), but rather threatened by nature and the test of time itself.
So Mark Bells is an individual that worked with them at one time, does he still work with them? Are there any colonies your aware of in the US, or Europe?

 

[juli11]

I had some offspring back in the day from zovikian but lost them to a long long story of a bad decision with a "friend". The pure travancore are very very rare here. Even in Europe they're very rare but more common there here, I know of 3 legal shipments from 1960-1980s from India of those guys. I speak with the curator here and there over I. India that works with them I. There natural range. They only have 8 total specimens in there care for captive reproduction. They are a very very endangered numbered animal. Somewhere less than yniphora wild numbers are close to travancore total numbers in the world. A very forgotten and little talked about species for sure.

But yes the "greenhouse" is ridiculous. When wearing glasses it's very difficult to keep them uncovered from the hot extreme humid environment in there. When acquired I will let everyone one what the "special" species are. For sure extremely rare in the United States and Europe in collections.

Yes I know some keepers of them. My "animal doctor" keeps them and some people from the Netherlands keeps them too. But yes Kelly they are a really rare species in nature and collection. And the people who keeps will never ever sell them I asked :-D

 

[juli11]

Oh I see…..Man, species like that are so interesting to me. Kind of like Coahulian boxies, right? They come only from the Cuatro Cie'negas Basin (no way I spelled that right…) in Coahulia, Mexico. Restricted range, they are completely dependent upon a single type of habitat. Very interesting. It's even more interesting with these species whose survival isn't even threatened by humans, or at least foremost by humans (as I doubt any of the former exist), but rather threatened by nature and the test of time itself.
So Mark Bells is an individual that worked with them at one time, does he still work with them? Are there any colonies your aware of in the US, or Europe?

There are some species which are endemic in a small habitat. For example the most cuora kinds most C. aurocapitata or G. japonica or H. depressa...