A couple days ago I was going to post on #4 but since the thread was moving so slow I didn't... what a difference a couple days makes!
My primary thought is that sulcata are not the animals hoarding the vegetation. The behavior sounds like that of a mammal or bird, not a tortoise, so I would assume that some animal is moving large volumes of nesting materials into sulcata burrows. Being opportunistic feeders, sulcata eat the materials when no fresh food is available. Sadly I don't know enough about African fauna to even begin to guess what animal would want to live in a sulcata burrow during the wet season but NOT be present for observers to find during the dry.
My secondary thought is that sulcata dragging vegetation into their burrows are replaying an African version of Bob and The Sprinkler. You can bet that if Bob, or any other tortoise, ever accidentally drags a tree into his shed he'll eat it too (and we'll have a great story with pictures to enjoy).
In all fairness, I am open to the idea that sulcata may actually hoard food. There may be some stimulus in the wild that signals that food will be plentiful or short. Maybe our captive sulcata use their human food gods as their personal indicators of food availability, and since we all check on our tortoises regularly, the tortoises are never triggered to attempt to hoard food.
My primary thought is that sulcata are not the animals hoarding the vegetation. The behavior sounds like that of a mammal or bird, not a tortoise, so I would assume that some animal is moving large volumes of nesting materials into sulcata burrows. Being opportunistic feeders, sulcata eat the materials when no fresh food is available. Sadly I don't know enough about African fauna to even begin to guess what animal would want to live in a sulcata burrow during the wet season but NOT be present for observers to find during the dry.
My secondary thought is that sulcata dragging vegetation into their burrows are replaying an African version of Bob and The Sprinkler. You can bet that if Bob, or any other tortoise, ever accidentally drags a tree into his shed he'll eat it too (and we'll have a great story with pictures to enjoy).
In all fairness, I am open to the idea that sulcata may actually hoard food. There may be some stimulus in the wild that signals that food will be plentiful or short. Maybe our captive sulcata use their human food gods as their personal indicators of food availability, and since we all check on our tortoises regularly, the tortoises are never triggered to attempt to hoard food.