Adult SPP!

[Torts"R"Us]

Here are some more pics of my SPP females , hope you all enjoy[FACE WITH STUCK-OUT TONGUE AND WINKING EYE]

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Total WOW factor. Stunning. Love-love-love them! : )

 

[DevilsLettuce]

I can't wait till my PPs get that size

 

[diamondbp]

So amazing. My favorite tortoise species!

 

[luvpetz27]

Beauties!!

 

[ben awes]

Here are some more pics of my SPP females , hope you all enjoy[FACE WITH STUCK-OUT TONGUE AND WINKING EYE]

Very nice! Wow, remarkable how smooth they are. Can you share how big they are - weight?

What is the flooring they are on in the one photo?

thanks

 

[Torts"R"Us]

In my opinion overall they look smooth to me . My largest female currently weights 50 pounds and measures 23"SCL , smaller 2 females measure 19"-21" SCL . The flooring is a rubber floor mat that's placed inside there tortoise shed. I don't use any substrate , except for winter .

 

[diamondbp]

Any hatchlings coming up soon?

 

[Irish]

Quite the lookers.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Very nice! Wow, remarkable how smooth they are.

Ben, one of those might be your big babies' momma. Adam, are those the JP GPP/SPPs? Ben has a baby from them, now years older of course! Kinda cool.

 

[Torts"R"Us]

I'm hopping to start producing SPP hatchlings at the end of next year . And yes , these females once belonged to Jeff P.

 

[DevilsLettuce]

Well let us know when you do... I wouldn't mind a couple hatchlings to add on to my herd...

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

I'm hopping to start producing SPP hatchlings at the end of next year . And yes , these females once belonged to Jeff P.

They are soooo beautiful. Ben has one of their babies. : )

 

[Neal]

Interesting observation - a lot of the SPP I have seen in the US, including my own, have a lot of marginal flaring on the front and rear marginals. Your adults don't appear to have much at all. Look at Dennis's male SPP for a good example of what I'm talking about.

Maybe you have a different variant of South African Leopard than what a lot of us do.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Interesting observation - a lot of the SPP I have seen in the US, including my own, have a lot of marginal flaring on the front and rear marginals. Your adults don't appear to have much at all. Look at Dennis's male SPP for a good example of what I'm talking about.

Maybe you have a different variant of South African Leopard than what a lot of us do.

Neal, I believe, Adam can correct me if I am mistaken, these are wild caught adults, from the early 90's, the one that was 50 animals into USA, and no more. So amazing.

 

[mikeh]

Re: RE: Adult SPP!

Interesting observation - a lot of the SPP I have seen in the US, including my own, have a lot of marginal flaring on the front and rear marginals. Your adults don't appear to have much at all. Look at Dennis's male SPP for a good example of what I'm talking about.

Maybe you have a different variant of South African Leopard than what a lot of us do.

Thank you. That's what I keep asking about, much less flaring in the pictures of wild SPP then everything I see in the US with the exception of Adams. If Bens and others came from these, how come his and others have such pronounced flaring? That's why thought of husbandry came to mind in regards to flaring in captives.

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[Neal]

I've actually seen more pictures of "wild" South African leopards with flaring than not.

 

[BeeBee*BeeLeaves]

Really? Well, so much for that being the reason. I was sure that's what it was. I wonder then if it's like you suggested, a variant within the region. And remember what Tom said he was told at the expo (in Anaheim), that the South African leopard tortoises were brought in by the English. He shared that on another thread. The plot thickens ...

 

[Neal]

In case you haven't read it yet - http://www.iucn-tftsg.org/wp-content/uploads/file/Articles/Fritz_etal_2010a.pdf

It has been a couple of years since I have read it, so I hope I remember things correctly. But I believe this article suggests that the majority of the "varients" identified in leopard tortoises occurred in Southern Africa. While we only refer to one or the other here in the US, it seems that in the wild, it is much more complex than just the South African variety and the Eastern African variety.

 

[Torts"R"Us]

View attachment 57091I see what your point is , Neal . But than again I have seen SPP with the same or even less marginal front and back flaring than my torts . Wanda Pattersons sunset hypo Pardalis female , is a prime example (very minimal marginal flaring). My smallest female out of the 3 has the most marginal flaring , I believe . I have whats believed to be a pardalis/babcocki male that has more front and back marginal flaring than my het for sunset hypo pardalis male . So what does this really mean ? I attached a picture of my hybrid male to compare .