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Incredible , if they had captive sulcatas that dark in color I would snatch them up in a heartbeat. I love the darker coloration
Wild Sulcata Pics
- Thread starter Tom
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As I read everyone's comments, I am reminded of details of conversations with Tomas and other details with conversations with forum members. Yvonne, for example has often noted that sulcatas tend to get lighter with sun exposure and the dark ones we often see are usually housed indoors most of the year in Northern climates with frozen winters. Tomas made a remark that any US sulcata keeper would find so odd. As he toured some American tortoise facilities for the first time a couple of years ago, he was astounded at the way the tortoises just walked around in broad daylight, above ground, out in the open, and would just walk right up to people. This is not the way sulcatas behave in the wild, he says. They rarely come above ground there, apparently. Add to this that, again according to Tomas, there are just two seasons: Hot and Hotter. I've been watching the temps from some random spots in sulcata territory for the last year and a half. I can't recall a day with temps lower than the low 90s, and most days are near or above 100. Nights never cool below the mid 60's even in "winter", with "summer nights in the 80s.
Putting all these factors together, and adding what I see in my own enclosures, here is my educated guess at the color: Its so darn hot all the time over there, and they almost never come above ground in the sun, while our cooler temps over here cause them to bask out in the sun for hours for most of the year. I wonder if ours are not "artificially" bleached out due to the "unnatural" sun exposure, wild the wild ones who avoid the hot sun all year, retain their darker coloration. All winter long when our temps only climb to the 60s or low 70s, my sulcatas come out every morning and lay in the sun in the hottest part of their enclosure for hours. In our summer with daily highs around 100 everyday, my sulcatas go underground and avoid sun exposure. My enclosures look like a ghost town in the summer sometimes. In fact they look a lot like those pics in post number 1.
This is all purely a guess, and just for fun and speculation. You know... tortoise talk.
Putting all these factors together, and adding what I see in my own enclosures, here is my educated guess at the color: Its so darn hot all the time over there, and they almost never come above ground in the sun, while our cooler temps over here cause them to bask out in the sun for hours for most of the year. I wonder if ours are not "artificially" bleached out due to the "unnatural" sun exposure, wild the wild ones who avoid the hot sun all year, retain their darker coloration. All winter long when our temps only climb to the 60s or low 70s, my sulcatas come out every morning and lay in the sun in the hottest part of their enclosure for hours. In our summer with daily highs around 100 everyday, my sulcatas go underground and avoid sun exposure. My enclosures look like a ghost town in the summer sometimes. In fact they look a lot like those pics in post number 1.
This is all purely a guess, and just for fun and speculation. You know... tortoise talk.
Oh wow. That possibility makes total sense, especially, like you say that indoor for a long time sulcatas tend have that honey brown color. These sulcatas look brown and even black in that last picture (probably shadow) ... like huge gopherus since we are used to seeing them so much more "blonde".
Like those wild thangs!. Thanks again Tomas and Tom! Can't wait to read the book!
Like those wild thangs!. Thanks again Tomas and Tom! Can't wait to read the book!
That's interesting Tom. I kinda thought I was asking a dumb question about the color as I figured it was just dirt. The way you say it makes sense though. Interesting.
There ARE genetic differences too. I call one of my Sudan sulcatas "Blondie" due to her exceptionally light coloration.
wow! they look so happy!
I went to the website recently that you posted Tom, the one that tells Toma's story. I bet some of those were once captive, did anyone else see the '5' written on the front of the sleeping sully? I love learning about them in the wild and let me just tell you, I was drooling at those pics, that place is just beautiful. I wonder though, with our cooler weather sulcatas being out all during the day, do you think maybe they are actually more comfortable than in their own natural environs?
Weda737 said:
Oh no! Captivity is a horrible blight and completely cruel in every way. All animals should be left in the wild no matter what. No animal could be comfortable, much less happy in the prisons we impose upon them.
(Complete sarcasm, for those who don't know me...)
Thanks for the post Tom. I really enjoy seeing the native habitat for African tortoises. Would be so fun to actually be there to see them in person, (sigh)
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I've always jokingly referred to sulcutas as "Giant Gopher tortoises", and seeing that habitat and the burrow construction and sideways blocking behavior, great parallel evolution.
Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting. I am very curious what you discover about the coprophasia. All sorts of interesting things there... seeding the gut with bacteria from a mammalian herbivore... I wonder what the protein content of antelope feces is...
On a related note... does anyone know of any research that has explored what other species use/share burrows with sulcatas?
On a related note... does anyone know of any research that has explored what other species use/share burrows with sulcatas?
zwhitman said:
Hello and welcome to the forum. There should be some info about this in the upcoming new book. In conversations with Tomas, he told me that all sorts of animals go down there into the sulcata burrow complexes to die so they can be out of the hot African sun, and the sulcatas eat them up after they are dead.
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Amazing!
Are they finding that Sulcatas are scavengers of sort or is this just last resort when no other food is available?
awesome pics thanks for sharing
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