Help me identify this Pardalis tortoise?

[Jeffruitz]

i saw this tortoise on the internet and was looking to know what Pardalis species is this tortoise. Is this giant somalia pardalis or a pardalis babcoki?

Thank you,

 

[Yvonne G]

Looks like babcock to me

 

[wellington]

I agree with Yvonne.
@Tom

 

[zovick]

i saw this tortoise on the internet and was looking to know what Pardalis species is this tortoise. Is this giant somalia pardalis or a pardalis babcoki?

Thank you,

I agree with Yvonne also. It looks like the babcocki subspecies or race, whichever you wish to call it.

 

[Markw84]

We don't ever see the Somalia giants here in the US. We only see the common, various "babcocki" clades and the "South African". As a result, hard to give you an answer. I wish we did have Somalia/ Ethanopian giants in the US!

 

[Tom]

As Mark explained, no one here has any experience at all with the Somalian/Ethiopian leopards, so I really don't have an answer for you.

When they are old and weathered like that, it could be any of them. No way for use to tell.

 

[Len B]

This is a 75 pound female leopard tortoise that I imported in 1975. The exporter D Muller was based in Johannesburg South Africa. I've always thought it was local to the South African area because everything else ordered was. He also told me that during the cold months leopards had been found with frost on their exposed shell.

 

[victoroko]

i saw this tortoise on the internet and was looking to know what Pardalis species is this tortoise. Is this giant somalia pardalis or a pardalis babcoki?

Thank you,

Hello,

No, that is not a giant Pardalis from Somalia. I have 2.3 Pardalis from Somalia and they are arround 50 to 60 kg each one. Sooo big.

 

[zovick]

This is a 75 pound female leopard tortoise that I imported in 1975. The exporter D Muller was based in Johannesburg South Africa. I've always thought it was local to the South African area because everything else ordered was. He also told me that during the cold months leopards had been found with frost on their exposed shell.View attachment 371450

Interesting about the frost occurring on the shells of the Leopards in their natural range. When I lived in the mountains of northwestern CT and was keeping four adult sulcatas, a few times, the nights got colder than was predicted, and I found frost on the backs of their shells. It did not adversely affect them in any way. As soon as the sun came out, they positioned themselves in such a way as to warm up as quickly as possible and then began grazing as usual.

As an aside, one year we had at least one frost in all 12 months!

Another year, a late spring snowstorm occurred, and the snow drifted over the 2 foot high fence around my Box Turtle enclosure. I saw the tracks of one of the Box Turtles as it walked on the snow, up and out of the enclosure! Unfortunately, I was not able to track it down as it had made it into some woods where there was not enough snow to retain tracks.