"According to Lockwood et al. (1994), rainfall in the Great Plains is heavier during the spring, but in Central Asia it is heavier during mid-summer."
Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Discussion-question-grassland-tortoises#ixzz1amoQsZMM
Hi, GTT!
Maybe in some parts that is true, but the typical Central-Asian climate, at least the one including most of A.h. habitat, is characterised by autumn-winter-spring rainfall and bone dry summers- that is the main reason why they are active only a short window in early spring to early summer: after that, the scorching heat and lack of rainfall kill all the annual weeds and force the tortoises underground. It is a rodent species too that follows the same pattern, forgot the name. The tulips too !
This can be seen checking the data for:
Kazakhstan- Almaty; Kyrgyzstan- Dzalal-Abad; Tajikistan- Dushanbe; Uzbekistan- Tashkent, Termez, Nurata; Turkmenistan- Ashgabat, Bayram-Ali; Afghanistan- Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif; Pakistan- Quetta; Iran- Zahedan, Mashhad, Tabriz.
Cheers!
Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Discussion-question-grassland-tortoises#ixzz1amoQsZMM
Hi, GTT!
Maybe in some parts that is true, but the typical Central-Asian climate, at least the one including most of A.h. habitat, is characterised by autumn-winter-spring rainfall and bone dry summers- that is the main reason why they are active only a short window in early spring to early summer: after that, the scorching heat and lack of rainfall kill all the annual weeds and force the tortoises underground. It is a rodent species too that follows the same pattern, forgot the name. The tulips too !
This can be seen checking the data for:
Kazakhstan- Almaty; Kyrgyzstan- Dzalal-Abad; Tajikistan- Dushanbe; Uzbekistan- Tashkent, Termez, Nurata; Turkmenistan- Ashgabat, Bayram-Ali; Afghanistan- Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif; Pakistan- Quetta; Iran- Zahedan, Mashhad, Tabriz.
Cheers!