Humidity

[jamiescorer]

Hi, it seems hard to get a consistent opinion about levels of humidity for Tortoises we keep indoors. I have a marginated Tortoise, I read there natural home is around mount Olympus. So I looked up humidity levels for that area, the humidity levels change with the months it varies between 50% and 70% during the active months. Which raises two questions
1. is there more humidity nearer the ground, which means these percentages are inaccurate.
2. Should we attempt to regulate indoor habitats so that humidity levels change as they would in their natural habitat.

 

[Baoh]

1. Yes to the first part and no to the second. The humidity values provided for areas like this are not claimed to be exactly at or a few inches above the actual ground.

2. In what way? You can raise them well in a humid environment. They, like many tortoises, dig in somewhat while under the cover of shade plants to escape the mid-day heat and when they retire for the night. You do not have to fluctuate the conditions as extremely as nature does, but you can if you choose to. If you choose to, you would then want to compensate for the microclimate-style provisions that the tortoises use to endure the threats and stressors. Shade plants. Moist areas to give respite from dry areas (and dry areas to give respite from moist areas, which some people may selectively ignore).

In nature, there are large sections of hillside which burn when there are fires in these areas of Greece. I found some corpses, yes, of animals which succumbed to the flames, but I also found marginata large and small which were walking around the ashes and presumably looking for shade and food. Those animals survived by being in the ground at the time and their good fortune with respect to that timing.

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Oh, and I wanted to add this and had gotten distracted by a question in my office.

During the late 90s, the last time I personally witnessed the kind of scenario described above, either Mega Channel or ANT1 (I forget which) used a clip of a large adult marginata wandering through the ashes of what was once pine scrub as their opening for any updates in reporting on the aftermath of the fires. It was interesting to me in a symbolic way, given the culture.

 

[jamiescorer]

Cheers for that he still has a small table and it's snowing outside so I'll try and keep the humidity constant, yeah good imagery, about the old tortoise rooting through the flames and ashes, like your point about culture and history, can also apply to present day!! how many lessons from a tortoise ha ha. Do the tortoise find a good hide or do they actually have burrows that they retreat too???

 

[Baoh]

In my observations, they dig in at times, but typically prefer to hide under something already present and just hunker down further (like a shrub's root system in some loose or semi-loose soil). They do not dig burrows in the way that a sulcata or polyphemus does. They may use a burrow if it already exists via the actions from another animal, but that is not applicable to the majority of a population. They will sometimes be found hiding in the bank overhang of a temporarily dry stream bed. I have even found a hatchling in the abandoned burrow of a river crab that had become exposed and accessible by receding water due to evaporation in Summer months, but this is an exception of an exception (of an exception).

 

[paludarium]

Here's a good research to read: Water Balance in Neonate and Juvenile Desert Tortoises, Gopherus agassizii.

According to the study, burrows (or humid hides), especially the long ones, were more efficient in keeping water balance in the tortoise instead of ambient humidity.

 

[jamiescorer]

Interesting read, demonstrates how remarkable and resilient these creatures are, how they can adapt to survive in some of the harshest conditions.