The baby literally was found in our yard. Tortoises are very widespread in this area. As mentioned before on this thread there is only one nature reserve in this area and there is constantly fires there. One lady I know had a tortoise and took him there to the nature reserve and after a few weeks she found him again in her gardenI think it's good that people need permits but I have never heard of anyone in this area being fined for tortoises in their garden. I think it's one thing to keep them in your garden in the same area they are from and another to take one away from their habitat somewhere far away in a unstable or unsuitable environment. I do understand why permits are required by law though especially in trading.
yeah i doubt they'd fine you if it was just in your garden living its life naturally they don't fine until you start trying to capture them etc like here in the states with gopher tortoises if one lives on your land you gotta deal with it even if it's digging stuff up
