visitor

[Yvonne G]

I'm in partnership on all the tortoises and turtles with a fellow who lives in Philadelphia, William. William came and spent the last two days with me. What a blessing it was to have an able-bodied man around the house for two days. He helped me with heavy projects that I haven't been able to handle myself, plus he helped me weigh the heavy tortoises. I have a nice, digital shipping scale but its only about 12" square, so I didn't think it would work for the large tortoises, however, we up-ended a 5 gallon bucket on the scale and placed the tortoises on the bucket.

Dudley weighed 97lbs three years ago, so I was sure he was quite heavy now, however he only weighs 106lbs. That's still quite a handful! 106lbs at about 20 or 21 years of age.

Bo weighs 123.4lbs and So weighs 130.2lbs. Not bad for only 10 years of age!

Even though it was good to see William and have him help me with beak filing and other ugly, heavy projects...I'm so glad to be alone again! I really do like being a hermit!!

 

[Stephanie Logan]

That is such a comical image: Dudley high-centered on an upside down bucket! Did he object at the time, or just give you dirty looks afterward?

I imagine Bo and So handling it with good-natured resignation, and I don't know why. I just keep remembering Bo's Mazuri face and can't envision the big guy in a bad mood...

I am sure the Food Goddess came through with special treats for all of them afterward.

 

[Yvonne G]

William brought his lap top with him and showed me many, many pictures that he took last November while he was on a conservation trip to South Africa.

He showed me what the tortoises eat in South Africa, and believe me, it isn't grasses and weeds!!! The only place there was grass was in the compound where they slept at night. They found leopard tortoises (LARGE ones) up in the hills and the ground was SO rocky. You couldn't even see any dirt. What the tortoises ate were succulents. One in particular that I KNOW the name of was "elephant bush." There were many variations of crassula (jade being only one) and ice plant. These were the mainstay for the tortoises to eat.

They also found and photographed padlopers, angulate, and several other types that I can't remember the names of. It was surprising that they were able to find and document so many different types of tortoise all living in the same general area.

William is in charge of a program called Asian Scholarship Program, where he brings one or two students here from other countries to study chelonian conservation techniques. He took one of last year's students along with another big name in tortoises, Jim Buskirk. Many, many pictures, and it made me so jealous to see where the tortoises come from and so very sad to see so many tortoise skeletons...especially the very rare kinds.

And Stephanie: the tortoises don't like being manhandled at all. Just picking them up is such an infringement into their well-being. They really hate it. But what a neat way to temporarily immobilize them for weighing!

 

[Tom]

I love the Africa stories. The wild leopards I saw were truckin' or sitting still. I never saw one eating. The captive ones ate grass and grass hay mostly. Some people were feeding them a lot of fruits and veggies. I bit my tongue since they looked so healthy and smooth.

I still carry my big torts almost every day. I've been turning them loose on the five acre ranch everyday to keep the weeds down, then I have to carry them back to their enclosure in the evening. I usually wait for them to cruise up near there before I grab them. Scooter let loose his urates all down my leg the other day. Got in my shoes and socks and everything. God I love sulcatas. Pretty soon, I'm going to need a wagon or a big wheelbarrow.

 

[Maggie Cummings]

I love the Africa stories. The wild leopards I saw were truckin' or sitting still. I never saw one eating. The captive ones ate grass and grass hay mostly. Some people were feeding them a lot of fruits and veggies. I bit my tongue since they looked so healthy and smooth.

I still carry my big torts almost every day. I've been turning them loose on the five acre ranch everyday to keep the weeds down, then I have to carry them back to their enclosure in the evening. I usually wait for them to cruise up near there before I grab them. Scooter let loose his urates all down my leg the other day. Got in my shoes and socks and everything. God I love sulcatas. Pretty soon, I'm going to need a wagon or a big wheelbarrow.

Tom, I don't mean to hijack Yvonne's thread (but I will) I wanted to show you Bob's cart. Training him to get into this cart is the best thing ever. It tips down in front, (I should have taken a picture of that) anyhow, it tips down in front and he climbs right in. Bob doesn't hesitate at all. ...hint...strawberries...

These pictures are 2 years old so he barely fits into the cart now. But if you will remember Bob escaped a couple of weeks ago and I got the cart and he climbed right in and I wheeled him right home...so it's a great thing to have them trained to climb right in...

 

[Candy]

Yvonne that sounds like such a great friend to have. I'm glad he came over to help you and I'm hoping that you fed him while he was there. Did you have to clean your house like when Robyn came by? Dudley and your others are pretty big tortoises I can't imagine having one that big. I guess Bob's got some eating to do to be as big as Dudley.

 

[Yvonne G]

UGH! housework!!! Well, I did tidy up a bit for William. But he knows what a slob I am, so I didn't go too far with the cleaning and polishing! He also knows that I don't cook, so we ate out every meal (except for pop corn!)

 

[Jacqui]

It sounds like you had a wonderful time and while doing so learned/saw many interesting things and even got so major work done, impressive! You should ask if he could share some of those pictures with us, in here.

 

[Yvonne G]

William sent me some pictures from his trip to South Africa. After seeing this first picture, I was amazed that they were able to find ANY tortoises, let alone the numbers that they did find:

And here's a tortoise and the bush he was eating. I'm not sure, but I THINK its an Angulate tortoise:

And South Africa wouldn't be complete without the token leopard tortoise:

The pictures came into my email account in a VERY large format. And when they were BIG I could see ice plant in the last picture. Its the light purple flower in the lower left corner.

 

[Tom]

See, it looks just like Santa Clarita, where I live now!!! For all of you who have been down the Grapevine (5 Fwy), doesn't it look just like that.

Wow, those pics bring back memories. What part of S.A. was he in?

 

[egyptiandan]

Very nice pictures Yvonne. Yes that first tortoise is an Angulated tortoise.

Danny

 

[Yvonne G]

What part of S.A. was he in?

He told me, however, I have a bad habit of not paying attention, sorry. I do remember him saying something about being close to both the east and west coasts because they were so far south.