Chersina Angulata Working Group

CarolM

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Ok took better pics of the area she likes to lay in. It is (if I think about it) the one area in the garden where there is sand and gets sun for most of the day. Where the little christmas hat is, is where she lay her egg yesterday.20180526_113151.jpeg20180526_120953.jpeg20180526_212142.jpeg
 
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CarolM

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The minimum time is 23 days. This is taken from a good sized sample set, and one of my females has hit exactly 23 days 2 times in a row now. In South Africa, they are reported to take a break for a couple months in late summer, but you might be at the beginning of her laying 2 or 3 eggs in the next few months.
Okay some feedback. As far as I know, (although I am not at home for most of the day during the week) I have not noted my female laying another egg yet. Day 23 after the last egg should have been the 17th of June. It is possible that she has laid another egg while I have not been at home, I have not observed any disturbances either. But they are very good at hiding their nest area and it is quite difficult to see any disturbance. So we will see if any more have been laid - I guess around March / April next year.

The first egg she laid in my above post day 90 is 17 August 2018. I will start checking the site everyday from then on - A reminder has been set in my calendar. But more than likely it will hatch in March / April next year as has been discussed.

Any updates on your eggs Dan?
 

Sterant

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Okay some feedback. As far as I know, (although I am not at home for most of the day during the week) I have not noted my female laying another egg yet. Day 23 after the last egg should have been the 17th of June. It is possible that she has laid another egg while I have not been at home, I have not observed any disturbances either. But they are very good at hiding their nest area and it is quite difficult to see any disturbance. So we will see if any more have been laid - I guess around March / April next year.

The first egg she laid in my above post day 90 is 17 August 2018. I will start checking the site everyday from then on - A reminder has been set in my calendar. But more than likely it will hatch in March / April next year as has been discussed.

Any updates on your eggs Dan?
HI Carol - Thanks for the info. My females have produced 7 eggs this year. 2 of them were recent and are in the incubator now. Waiting to see if they are fertile. the first 5 were not. One thing I did notice with the first 5 was that they all developed an air pocket inside. The air pocket slowly got bigger and bigger and then the egg went bad. For the two current eggs, I increased the humidity in the incubator to 90% and the air pockets have not developed. I will keep you updated if either of these eggs turn out to be fertile.
 

CarolM

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HI Carol - Thanks for the info. My females have produced 7 eggs this year. 2 of them were recent and are in the incubator now. Waiting to see if they are fertile. the first 5 were not. One thing I did notice with the first 5 was that they all developed an air pocket inside. The air pocket slowly got bigger and bigger and then the egg went bad. For the two current eggs, I increased the humidity in the incubator to 90% and the air pockets have not developed. I will keep you updated if either of these eggs turn out to be fertile.
Now that you mention the air pocket, my last egg also had an air pocket. It also turned out to be infertile. I was reading the various threads about Angulata and one if them mentioned that when they first started they were getting lots of infertile eggs. So they changed the diet and after that the fertility of the eggs improved. I will need to go and read them again to see who it was.
 

Sterant

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Now that you mention the air pocket, my last egg also had an air pocket. It also turned out to be infertile. I was reading the various threads about Angulata and one if them mentioned that when they first started they were getting lots of infertile eggs. So they changed the diet and after that the fertility of the eggs improved. I will need to go and read them again to see who it was.
I think I mentioned that earlier in this same thread. It was a friend of mine, Dwight, That mentioned the diet change impacting fertility. I have to get some statistics from him so we understand how much fertility improved.
 

CarolM

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I think I mentioned that earlier in this same thread. It was a friend of mine, Dwight, That mentioned the diet change impacting fertility. I have to get some statistics from him so we understand how much fertility improved.
Yes that is correct. It was you who mentioned it and was about your friend Dwight. But on Shellfreak's thread.
 
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Announcing the Chersina Angulata Working Group

You may have noticed some increased activity on the forum around Bowsprit tortoises lately. About 3 months ago, after talking to many, many people (the majority of which are on the forum), I initiated a project which was ultimately named the “Chersina Angulata Working Group”.

Though the project has affiliations with the Zoo I work with, primarily for the purposes of creating a North American studbook, it was founded by individuals. Over the past 3 months, we have been collecting as much information as we can about the species, both in-situ and in historical US based collections. In the US, this species has earned the reputation of being very difficult to maintain successfully, while in some areas of the world, they are known to be hearty and resilient. These opposing views intrigued many of us and prompted the creation of this group.
Our mission includes the following:

1) Obtain a large captive colony of C. angulata in the US as founders of at least 5 disparate breeding groups around the country.

2) Through collaboration, understand and document successful captive husbandry techniques.

3) Build a sustainable CB generation in the US.

4) Create and maintain an official North American studbook.

Today the group consists of the following founding members (in alphabetical order):
  • Dwight Lawson – CAWG Cofounder
  • Chris Leone – CAWG Cofounder
  • Tom Roach – CAWG Cofounder
  • Kingsley Rodrigo - CAWG Cofounder
  • Dan Sterantino – CAWG Cofounder, Director and Studbook keeper
Between us, we currently have 7.8.3 animals within collections in NY, NJ, OK and AZ.

We will be working diligently to accomplish the mission outlined above and will be reporting our progress here, on the Tortoise Forum. We are trying to get a separate “Bowsprit Tortoise” section on the forum so watch for that in case this thread moves.

Please consider this notification a call for help. If you know of any Bowsprit tortoises in the US, we would like to know about them. If you have prior experiences with these animals you can share with us, please do.
I am also very excited to share our newest additions to the group. The attached adult females have been recently acquired and will hopefully be major contributors to our breeding group going forward.

Thanks to all of you I have spoken to over the past few months – Most notably:

@Will , @Tom , @HermanniChris , @kingsley , Dwight Lawson, @zovick , @CarolM, @JeannineD and Jonathan Gray.
View attachment 226182
Are you still looking to add new captive Chersina angulata groups to your studbook? I have 2.3 in California.
 

William Lee Kohler

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Putting 2&2 together I got the Idea searching various tortoises mostly Hingebacks online have gotten the impression that Star Tortoise world is another name for Underground Reptiles. Perhaps some computer ingenuity can determine the fact of fallacy of this?
 

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