My Leopard tortoise climbs stairs

[Geri K]

For my friends on the Tortoise Forum: they say leopard tortoises are climbers and that is definitely true. My leopard climbs outdoor stairs several times a day which is about 12 steps to get to the top. He descends exactly as you would expect - cantilevering himself over the edge until he drops down. I don't have a video of the descent, just the ascent.

 

[pawsplus]

What is with his shell????

 

[Geri K]

We don’t know exactly how he got this injury. He is a wild tortoise that lives on our property and he has been like that for at least 10 years. Clearly he recovered from a major crushing injury.

 

[pawsplus]

Wow. What a tough guy!

 

[AgataP]

It looks like he has been in a fire possibly. His front leg is injured as well but look like all the tissue is healed. Seems like he is doing fine. Kinda cool to have a wild tortoise to come over and visit with you guys.

 

[wellington]

My thought too was a possible fire.
Glad he made it thru whatever it was.
A female leopard I sold to another forum member also climbs whatever she can.

 

[Geri K]

Might have been fire as burning of field brush prior to planting is a regular practice here. However I think the injury was caused by a car. We saw a couple of juvenile leopard tortoises crushed by cars in the road unfortunately. They are quite common animals here.