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Firstly, theHermann'sTortoise,
Testudoher-
manni
,twosubspeciesofwhicharebredre-
gularly. The eastern or ”common” Her-
mann'sTortoise,
T.h.boettgeri
,which is very
widespread in southern Europe (Bulgaria,
Greece,Albania,Croatia,BosniaandHerze-
govina,Montenegro,Macedonia,Serbia,Ro-
mania, andparts of EuropeanTurkey) and
thesomewhatsmallerwestern race
T.h.her-
manni
(formerly
robertmertensi
), which is
marginal plateabove the tail beingdivided
centrally.Unlike
T.h.boettgeri
,
T.h.hermanni
has a yellow spot behind the eye and two
parallel black bands on the ventral armor.
Theyellowspot isabsent in
T.h.boettgeri
and
there are largeblack spots on the ventral
armor, but these do not merge to form
bands.Theeasternracegrowstoaround15-
18cm (males) and18-25cm (females) long,
rarelywith larger specimens,while thewe-
toise,
Testudo graeca
, with 14 subspecies,
whosedistributionencompassespractically
all the allcountries inEuropeandAfricathat
border theMediterranean, andwhich also
occurs in theMiddleEast (Iran,Iraq,Turkme-
nistan,Armenia,Georgia,Azerbaijan).Toenu-
TheMarginatedTortoise (
Testudomarginata
) is the largestEuropean tortoisespecies,exceptionallyattai-
ning45cm in length.Normally,however, itgrows toonlyaround35cm long.
All the specimens in thisphotoare siblings thatoriginated from the sameclutch.Note that each speci-
menneverthelessexhibits individualmarkingsandvariations in theplatesof thecarapace. (
Testudo
hermanni
,Hermann'sTortoise).
foundonly inpartsofthewesternareaofthe
species' range (Spain, Italy,France).TheHer-
mann's Tortoise canbe recognizedby the
horny"nail"ontheendofthetailandbythe
stern raceattains10-15 cm (males) and14-
20cm (females).
Secondly, theGreek or Spur-ThighedTor-
meratethedifferencesbetweenthesubspe-
ciesherewouldbe togoway too far,and in
anycase theyusuallycannotbedetected in
juveniles. It is sufficient to know that there
are a very large number of subspecies, so
that you don't inadvertently produce a
mishmashwhenputtingtogetherbreeding
groups.The Spur-ThighedTortoise has no
hornynailontheendofthetailandthemar-
ginalplateabove the tail isnotdivided.This
speciesgrows to20-30cm long.
IdentificationcharactersofEuropean tortoises.
From top to bottom:
Testudo graeca, T. her-
manni
and
T.marginata
.
