I have been researching the history of egyptian tortoises in the USA over the past few months, speaking with established Egyptian breeders and thought I would reach out on TFO searching for further information as to how many unique bloodlines exist here in the USA.
It seems that most if not all imports in the 80-90's died off due to poor husbandry information/terrible shipping conditions.
An early shipment off kleinmanni was initially divided up between several key early breeders of Egyptian tortoises including Dan Wolf, John Coakley and several others. From those WC groups, we have what is the majority of CB Egyptians produced in the US. Other established bloodlines such as Abbots (from Abbots Turtle Farm) or Dan Mckinnen (aka Egyptian Dan) are most likely offshoots of those early breeders as they both purchased founding animals from the original import group that survived and reproduced.
I have been told there still may be other unique bloodlines out there (Moorpark Zoo comes to mind, possibly those produced by Jerry Fife) but information/records from that period is really hard to track down. I am tagging some of the "OG" tortoise community members and some of the breeders who post regularly on here in the hopes it may stir up memories, names or places that had founding animals that produced offspring at one point.
@zovick @dovelett15 @Tim/Robin @[email protected] @GBtortoises @billskleins @tortadise @Kapidolo Farms @G-stars @HermanniChris
If you would prefer to discuss privately, [email protected], thanks.
It seems that most if not all imports in the 80-90's died off due to poor husbandry information/terrible shipping conditions.
An early shipment off kleinmanni was initially divided up between several key early breeders of Egyptian tortoises including Dan Wolf, John Coakley and several others. From those WC groups, we have what is the majority of CB Egyptians produced in the US. Other established bloodlines such as Abbots (from Abbots Turtle Farm) or Dan Mckinnen (aka Egyptian Dan) are most likely offshoots of those early breeders as they both purchased founding animals from the original import group that survived and reproduced.
I have been told there still may be other unique bloodlines out there (Moorpark Zoo comes to mind, possibly those produced by Jerry Fife) but information/records from that period is really hard to track down. I am tagging some of the "OG" tortoise community members and some of the breeders who post regularly on here in the hopes it may stir up memories, names or places that had founding animals that produced offspring at one point.
@zovick @dovelett15 @Tim/Robin @[email protected] @GBtortoises @billskleins @tortadise @Kapidolo Farms @G-stars @HermanniChris
If you would prefer to discuss privately, [email protected], thanks.