What species?

[AnnaT]

Can anyone confirm what species this tortoise is? I was told he is a Greek Spur Thigh.



Many thanks.

 

[Rogue]

Congrats on your new tortoise (yes, I think it is a greek spur thigh, Testudo graeca). There are some experts that will chime in on specific subspecies, I'm sure. Can we get a shot of his plastron, tail (topside and vent side) and head? I think that would help.

 

[AnnaT]

Thank you Rogue. I do have some more photos here. He is currently receiving veterinary treatment hence the stitches and feeding tube. I hope no one finds the photos upsetting.

Tail



Plastron


Head

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Anna, and welcome to the Forum!!

Aw, the poor little guy. Was he chewed on by a dog?

 

[AnnaT]

Thanks Yvonne. We aren't sure what chewed on him - the vet suggested a fox or possibly a dog. I work for a rescue and he was handed in on deaths door with gangrene and severe flystrike. Also, the bone was sticking through where his legs were. The vets did a fantastic job and did a 6 hour operation on him to remove all maggots and eggs, gangrene and stitch him up. He is very lucky as the gangrene was millimeters away from his vital organs.

 

[Jacqui]

Poor fellow, how very sad to see. Glad he got help.

 

[Yvonne G]

Please keep us informed on his progress. It will be interesting to see how he gets around once he's all healed up.

BGTortoises is good at I.D.ing the Mediterranean tortoises. You might send him a PM with this thread's link.

 

[AnnaT]

Please keep us informed on his progress. It will be interesting to see how he gets around once he's all healed up.

BGTortoises is good at I.D.ing the Mediterranean tortoises. You might send him a PM with this thread's link.

Thank you. I will keep you updated. I actually have some videos of him moving around. Here is one;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkUPHxJpwTQ

I know it say Bracken there, but I have renamed him to Gordon

 

[Yvonne G]

I just noticed that I wrote the name wrong. Our member is GBTortoises.

 

[AnnaT]

I just noticed that I wrote the name wrong. Our member is GBTortoises.

Thank you I have sent a PM

 

[Vitality]

From the video it looks to be fairly big. due to the injuries i couldnt really tell but i think it may be a SHE! Looks a bit large to be a male greek tortoise as the females are always more massive. Im not an expert but i believe around 6" for an adult male and 9-12" for a female.

Just an assumption from that video! Looks like he or she is doing very well now!

 

[GBtortoises]

He looks to be a fairly old and weathered Libyan Greek, Testudo graeca cyrenaica.

 

[JoesMum]

I have a 10.5 inch male TGG... and he's DEFINITELY male! So they do come bigger.

I'd query the gender as the plastron looks quite flat underneath and Joe's has long been concave, the tail looks relatively short and the notch above the tail looks quite rounded compared with Joe's definite V. I'd err on the side of female.

This is Joe's tail shot

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[GBtortoises]

Mature size of both males and females in most cases is relevant to their subspecies and specific population. I have two distinct races of Ibera. One group from the northern most region of their natural range and the other from the Southern most extent of their range. The northern females average 10" scl, the males about 7.5" scl. The males are very easily identifiable by their huge based tail and concave lower plastron. The largest female in the southern race is 8" and the male I don't think even reaches 6". The females do not really have concave plastrons but they are not perfectly flat either. The male has a very weakly concave plastron with a less than prominent tail. This is just an example of within one species. The many subspecies of Greeks can vary quite a bit from each other so size, shape & shell pattern can't necessarily be generalized.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Thank goodness he is in good hands! Thank you for saving him and to the vet that fixed him. : )

 

[FLGirl41]

I just watched the video. What an absolute sweetheart! I hope he has a smooth recovery. Welcome to the forum btw! Is he your first tortoise?

 

[AnnaT]

I just watched the video. What an absolute sweetheart! I hope he has a smooth recovery. Welcome to the forum btw! Is he your first tortoise?

Thank you. Yes he is my first tortoise. We tried to get him into other reptile rescues, but they said he should be PTS due to his injuries. We didn't agree with him being PTS without giving him a chance and I am so glad we did because he is getting better every day

 

[FLGirl41]

I just watched the video. What an absolute sweetheart! I hope he has a smooth recovery. Welcome to the forum btw! Is he your first tortoise?

Thank you. Yes he is my first tortoise. We tried to get him into other reptile rescues, but they said he should be PTS due to his injuries. We didn't agree with him being PTS without giving him a chance and I am so glad we did because he is getting better every day

Yay! Good for you for giving him a chance. Please keep us updated on his progress.