NEWS104
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Captive-bredAfricanSpurredTortoise,around10 cm long.
AdultAfricanSpurredTortoise.
AfricanSpurredTortoise,eating it and taking
itwiththemasa livefoodsupplyorforbarter.
For this reason it is nowadays often very
difficult to find out whether a local
occurrenceof theAfricanSpurredTortoise is
in fact a natural occurrence (the technical
term is autochthonous), or attributable to
introductionbyMan (=allochthonous).
Because wild populations are seriously
endangered
there
have
been
no
importations of wild-caught specimens in
the trade for a long time.But thereare large
numbers of specimens in the hands of
tortoise enthusiasts. They are bred so
contributory factor is the fact that these
tortoises can become very tame, a
characteristicmentioneda long timeagoby
Wilhelm Klingelhöffer, a past master of
terrarium science. But it should also be
mentioned that this tameness can have its
downside in the case of largemales of the
African SpurredTortoise, as they sometimes
regard humans as rivals to be bitten and
rammed,whichcan leadtoserious injuries.So
anyone wanting to keep African Spurred
Tortoises needs one thing above all: lots of
space.
This can include outdoors, where these
tortoisescanbekept from spring toautumn
in central Europe, though they should have
the option of warming themselves up to
around40 °Cunder a localizedheat lamp. In
extreme cases the temperature candrop to
belowzeroatnight inthenaturalhabitat,but
under normal circumstances you should
ensure that the night-time temperature
doesn’tdropsignificantlybelow15°C.All this
can best be achieved by allowing the
tortoises access to a greenhouse from their
outdoor runviaakindof“cat flap”.Thismust
be very robustly constructed at the bottom
as otherwise some of these large, powerful
tortoiseswill soon reduce it tomatchwood.
“Dryness”is farmore importanta factor than
temperature. Toomuchmoisture is bad for
these tortoises, bearing in mind that they
efficiently and regularly that theworldwide
demand among enthusiasts can be easily
satisfied by captive-bred specimens.
Practically all the populations currently
maintained in Europe and the USA are
descended from specimens imported from
Mali. Although at present no subspecies of
theAfrican SpurredTortoise are recognized,
there are, however, local differences in size
between the individual populations.And so
we know that theMali form of the African
SpurredTortoisedoesn’tgrowquiteas large.
Females attain a length of 40-50 cm,males
50-60 cm;maximumweight is 45-60kg.The
males are fundamentally larger than the
females, and record sizes andweights relate
exclusively tomales.
The sexes cannot be accurately determined
in theAfricanSpurredTortoiseuntil relatively
lateon, froma lengthof 25-30 cmupwards.
Prior to that it is largely a matter of
guesswork. The usual sexual differences in
tortoises apply: the tail of the male is
considerably longer than that of the female,
and theventral armorof themale isstrongly
concave.Oldmales alsodevelop agenerally
differentappearance.Thecarapacebecomes
increasingly flatter, the lateral edgeplates of
the armor (the marginalia) curve upwards,
the head looks emaciated, sometimes just
likeadeath’shead (this iscompletelynormal
andnothing todowithcaptivity),prominent
temporal ridges develop, and the eyes also
protrude; the "beak" looks more hooked in
males.
Thebasicsofmaintenance
It is more than understandable that such
impressive creatures awaken the desire to
own them; not for nothinghas
Centrochelys
sulcata
become one of the most popular
tortoise species in Europe and the USA. A
originate from a very dry landscape. So the
floor of their open-air terrarium (and alsoof
theirwinterquarters,whichobviouslyshould
be indoors)mustbeverywelldrained,sothat
moistureneveraccumulatesatall.
In the wild African Spurred Tortoises dig
several large, deep burrows for themselves.
These are essential for their survival, as here
they can escape from the worst of the
daytime heat, but they also spend their
