This is where my little Russian group spends the winter. At first, it is 3/4 full of dried leaves, but throughout the winter the leaves decompose and settle, and when Spring rolls around it's just a layer over the bottom of the hibernaculum.
And when I looked inside:
They're trying to get the best angle for sun absorption.
This is my whole group. The male is the slightly deformed tortoise on the right side of the three and he's the closest to the camera. The others are female. Years ago @egyptiandan helped me regionalize them and I kept only the ones he said were Kazbeckistan (spelling?????).
Their yard is so overgrown that I never see nest digging, and so if they ever do lay eggs, the red ants get them before they can hatch. But I'm hopeful, and I do watch faithfully every spring after I put them out in their yard.
And when I looked inside:
They're trying to get the best angle for sun absorption.
This is my whole group. The male is the slightly deformed tortoise on the right side of the three and he's the closest to the camera. The others are female. Years ago @egyptiandan helped me regionalize them and I kept only the ones he said were Kazbeckistan (spelling?????).
Their yard is so overgrown that I never see nest digging, and so if they ever do lay eggs, the red ants get them before they can hatch. But I'm hopeful, and I do watch faithfully every spring after I put them out in their yard.
