NEWS106
24
Turtles
Thisphotoof thehatchingof twosouthern In-
dianStarTortoiseswas takenon21.1.2013.
Photo:C.Fritz,www.reptilia24.com
Adult femaleof the formof
Geocheloneelegans
from southern India.
Photo:FrankSchäfer
nfortunately things were different in
thepast.Inadequate,inappropriatehol-
dingconditions in thecountryof originand
long-distancetransportationmeantthatspe-
cimens that reachedEuropewereoftenmo-
ribund. Itwas in thosedays that this robust
tortoisegainedthereputationofbeingextre-
melydelicateanddifficulttokeepalive.
Potentialconfusion!
Thestarrypatternsostrikingandattractiveto
U
The Indian Star Tortoise,
Geocheloneelegans,
is regarded as oneof the lo-
veliest tortoisesoccurring in Indiaandadjacentcountries. Ithas longbeen
a firm favoritewith terrariumenthusiasts,but it isonly recently that it has
beenbred so regularly that it canbe regarded as readilymaintained and
even suitable fornovices.
The IndianStarTortoise
byChristophFritz,www.reptilia24.com
oureyes is fairlywidespreadamong tortoises.
In thewild itactsascamouflage,breakingup
theoutlineof the tortoise.Henceanumberof
otherspeciesarelikewiseknowncolloquiallyas
“star tortoises”, forexample
Geocheloneplaty-
nota
,acloserelativeof
Geocheloneelegans
from
Burma,oreventhehugeand impressive
Astro-
chelysradiata
fromMadagascar.Forthisreason
itisalwayswisetousethescientificnamesthat
areuniversallyvalidworldwideinordertoavoid
anyconfusion.Theonly relevant synonymof
the name
Geochelone elegans
is
Testudo ele-
gans
.Themajorityof the tortoise speciesare
comparativelyclosely related tooneanother,
theyhaveproved tobeasuccessful evolutio-
narytemplatethathasrequiredonlyafewana-
tomicaladaptationsoverthecourseofmillions
of years. It is ultimately amatter of opinion
whether themanyspecies fromseveral conti-
nentsshouldbeunited in thecatch-allgenus
Testudo
or that thisgenus shouldbe splitup
