Underground Tortoise Bunker

[Tom]

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This is my latest project. It was inspired by some of the really cool caves and shelters I saw here on the forum, but mostly I got the idea from Tyler. I've always wanted my sulcatas to be able to be underground, somehow, but I don't want them to just start digging willy-nilly all over the place and get stuck in a collapsed or flooded tunnel. This is Daisy's pen and it was sort of a small scale experiment. I intend to add a heat mat when fall gets here and watch the over night temps, without her in it. If I like how it goes, I intend to do something similar on a large scale for the adults."Underground" chamber dimensions are 2x3' and I filled it with 3-4" of peat moss and coco chips.

Start of construction.


Top, before insulation.


Coming together now.


Starting to dig... not fun in 114 degree weather, in direct sun, in rocky, rooty, hardpacked soil.


Checking the fit.


Adding the tunnel.


This piece is sort of a rain cover. Its around 20" of ground covered and sloped away from the tunnel entrance. Unless water starts flowing uphill, it can't flood the underground chamber from here.


The interior of the chamber showing peat and coco chips, as well as temp/humidity probe and Daisy.


Finished and buried. She's in there in this pic.


The end result. The bottom two numbers are current temp and humidity where ever the unit sits. In this case in the shade near the pen. The upper numbers are temp and humidity where the probe sits, in the underground chamber, and the high and low for the last 24 hours. The probe wasn't in there when that high and low were recorded. It basically stayed 80-81 all day down there and 84% humidity, even though it was in the direct sun all day on a 100 degree day.


She didn't use it much on the first day. I put her in the chamber once and down the tunnel twice, but she preferred to stay above ground. I'll keep putting her in this enclosure and see if she starts to like it or not.

Some lessons I learned the hard way, so you don't have to:
http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Begi...z1tFmWpjdi

http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-Help...z1s7KwW130

2.4.3 Geochelone sulcata
0.0.9 Geochelone pardalis pardalis

[ekm5015]

Very nice. That is a great setup. I will have to do something similar in the future.

[Neal]

Did you use anything to treay the wood? I would like to do something like this, but I worry about the wood rotting.

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treat*

[TylerStewart]

Works great, doesn't it? That 80 degrees will drop quite a bit more if you put 2-3" of soil on top of that lid..... You can keep it above grade if you want, but when the sun is hitting it directly like that it will still heat up the inside of the box a lot more than it would if there was a small amount of soil. I just put enough on there that it's not a big deal to scrape it off (or lift it off) if you need to access the inside. I think you'll find you don't need to access the inside very much.

[Missy]

Very nice, lucky tort.

[Tom]

Neal, Its just plain old plywood. Its so dry where I am that wood just doesn't rot, even in areas that get hosed a lot. I pulled a 2x4 up that had been buried in a constantly wet area for 12 years and it looked pretty rotten. I cut it with a chop saw just to see how bad it was in cross section and it was in perfect condition except for the outer 1/16th of an inch or so. I'm the one who put it in the ground 12 years ago and the dog kennels get hosed almost every day, so I'm sure of the conditions too. I won't cry if that shelter only lasts for 15 or 20 years. Ha ha.

Tyler, you can see in the one pic that I glued a one inch thick piece of rigid foam insulation to the inside of the lid and that seems to have done the trick. I still put some dirt on top after the pics on your recommendation from before. I'll be checking temps daily for a while.

Everyone else, Thanks for the compliments.

[Neal]

(08-28-2010 04:40 PM)Tom Wrote:  ... in the one pic that I glued a one inch thick piece of rigid foam insulation...

Random response: I use that same exact type of foam insulation for my tortoises winter house, that stuff works really good!!

[terryo]

There is a sanctuary in Florida that my sister sent me a picture of with the same thing on a very large scale for ...I think they were....sulcata's. I have to ask her if she still has the pictures. That's really cool.

[Tom]

(08-28-2010 04:46 PM)terryo Wrote:  There is a sanctuary in Florida that my sister sent me a picture of with the same thing on a very large scale for ...I think they were....sulcata's. I have to ask her if she still has the pictures. That's really cool.

I would love to see that Terry! I'm considering cinderblocks instead of wood for the big one. It will be roughly 4x8'.

[terryo]

I just called my sister and she said she's going to try and find the pictures she took.

[jrcrist4]

That is so cool inovative and just plain Awsome!!

[TOK DADDY]

Very cool - one of the more original things I've seen thus far on this forum. I've done several underground "borrow's" just as you have. They absolutely love it. Great job!

[Scooter]

Great idea! Thanks for the step by step shots.

[emysemys]

I thought of cinderblocks too. Buried wood in my part of the country has rot and termites within 6 months. I like that a lot. Thanks for the pictures Tom. Bookmark!!

[Becki]

Awesome! Thanks for the pictures. 114 degrees! Yikes!