Mistaken Identity Hermann's maybe Marginated

[Raymo2477]

Anybody know a sure fire way of telling a hatchling marginated from a hatchling hermann's? A friend bought one and it looks to be a hermann's...has a spur on tail but instead of the black bands on plastron it has two small blotches in the center.

Any help appreciated and I will try to get a pic from her of the tortoise.

When she bought it the cage it came out of had three species in it, hermann's, marginated, and Greek...I am positive it is not Greek but I am not very familiar with marginated tortoises.

 

[jackrat]

Pictures?

 

[GBtortoises]

Very easily with photos. Marginateds will have a plastron that looks similar to the following, not so obvious in young tortoises below 3", but as adults the patterns always look like the photo below:

Whereas a baby Eastern Hermann's might look like something similar to the following photos:

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

If there's a spur on the tail, it's a Hermann's...T. marginata has no spur, tail or thigh.

Here's a pretty good pic of a female Marginated tortoise:

and a male:

 

[Raymo2477]

Here's the pics...never seen such little black on the plastron. Has spur on tail tip (can't see it in foto). Looks the be hermann's ...any idea t.h.b or t.h.hercegovenis (I know I spelled it wrong)?

---

Side virw

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

Refer to http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread...hercegovinensis-vs-T-h-hermanni#axzz1bo9snVyi

The Thb subspecies tends to have the least amount of black on the plaston, which implies that it's Thb...but that's only a guess, as it's possible for the plaston marking to change as it grows, and, because so many Thhs and Thbs have been mistaken for one another, thus bred together, sometimes it's hard to know how "pure bred" the tortlet actually is.

 

[GBtortoises]

The tortoise in the photos is an Ibera Greek, Testudo (gracea) ibera, not Hermann's or Marginated. While it may have a hard tail tip, it doesn't actually have a spur as a Hermann's does.

 

[agiletorts]

Ray - I'd agree with gbtortoises that your friend has a greek. Please check the thigh area and there should be a small spur on it (i.e. mediterranean spur thigh).

 

[Raymo2477]

Thanks for the info...now she have to research how to care for a Greek.

Is there much difference in husbandry between a Greek and Hermann's tortoises?

 

[GBtortoises]

There is no difference between the care requirements of an Ibera and a Hermann's tortoise. I have adults, sub-adults and juvenilles of both species and all are kept identically with great success. The only real difference is that Ibera are not as active at cooler temperatures. The only time that should be an issue is when the tortoise is outdoors.