Aldabran behaviour

Status
Not open for further replies.

kloy

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Messages
1
Hi there!

I'm a new user here, I found this site as I was specifically searching for people who own aldabran tortoises. I am already a member of reptileforums uk (as I'm a snake owner), and I have already posted for assistance with this topic. However perhaps due to the attitude towards private keeping of aldabrans in the UK, keepers were not very forthcoming with their experiences.

One user did however point me in the direction of a user called Ed who was from the USA and has writted few papers/caresheets concerning aldabra tortoises, with which he was kind enough to provide me. I see from furthur down the topic board here that he is a user on this site too!

Basically, for my third year dissertation, I conducted an environmental enrichment study on the group of three aldabrans at Twycross Zoo, Tamworth UK. I scatter fed them, and offered them browse strung up and monitored any changes in activity budget to see if changing their feeding regieme encouraged more activity.

Now it has come to the writing up of said project, I'm having a reasonable amount of difficulty finding anything published about these animals, regarding behaviour, diet or otherwise, so I was hoping that anybody who can think of anything they've read about aldabrans that might be useful, any books they can recommend, or indeed anything drawn from your personal experiences that you may be willing to share?

I particuarly noted that the group I studied (comprised of 2 males and 1 female) seemed divided: the males spent a lot of time together and the female was left alone unless they were trying to mate with her. Is this usual? Have you noted any 'converstation' as it were between you tortoises, similar to the grunt they make whilst mating but less deep and shorter? If so, was it between genders, or inter-gender etc, and did you think it was 'friendly' or aggressive?

I realise this has turned into quite the essay......apologies!

Chloe x
 

Yvonne G

Old Timer
TFO Admin
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 23, 2008
Messages
93,390
Location (City and/or State)
Clovis, CA
Hi Chloe:

Welcome to the forum!!

Yes, Ed is a member here, but he hasn't posted in quite a long time. You can do a search for his threads (-EJ) and see pictures of his Aldabran tortoises.

I have two male about 125lbs and 10 years old. They DO stay together, and thank goodness, they don't fight (yet?).

Sorry I can't help you with references, as I've not been able to find any written resources.
 

tortugahill

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5
Ed told me about The book, Giant Tortoises of the Indian Ocean by Justin Gerlach which I found to be very informative.ISBN 3-930612-63-1.I also have a care sheet he provided.
We have had the pleasure of Moses since Sept 06. He was about 3 pounds when we got him; now close to 30.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

New Posts

Top