Angulate eating a bone

JeannineD

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Spending a lot of time watching the Angulates in the garden is surprisingly interesting. They thrive on the indigenous flora, but it was quite odd to see this fellow spending ages gnawing on an old bone. I guess they like the calcium and need it for shell growth.
 

Tom

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I'm torn watching this video…

On one hand, these are wild tortoises, and don't need human interference.

On the other hand, I want to get a hammer and smash that bone into little pieces for that tortoise…

Jeannine, I have a question: Do you see them eating bugs or any sort of protein very often?
 

JeannineD

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Hi Tom

You know, if you smashed the bone, he would walk away and never touch it again. They are so independent. They love fresh Hibiscus flowers but I have to drop them, as if accidentally, a metre in front of them. If you put the flower too close, or God forbid, try to feed them, they scramble away as if you are trying to poison them.

Some, we have been in contact with for 12 years, and they are no friendlier today than the day we fist saw them. We do pick them up, and they don't mind having their heads and chins scratched, but they never seek us out. They tolerate us in exchange for access to a large indigenous garden.

One particularly large and old male, the Alpha in the area, will come up to the tap sometimes during drier periods. He knows it is a source of water and expects us to turn it on for him. We call him Meanie as all he does is fight and have sex. If he sees a male he battles, if he sees a female he mates. He is the biggest one I have ever seen and so unpleasant that you can't help but adore him. He stinks to high heaven and many years ago I made the mistake of washing him in a big bowl of luke warm water. He struggled like mad, was absolutely furious and left the property for over a month.

Was thinking about your questions about them not surviving well in captivity and I wonder if their personality might have something to do with it. They are so wild, aggressive and untameable.

Also, our climate is so unpredictable and quite extreme. They always say that we can have four seasons in one day and that is true. We have intense heat, high humidity often but also dry periods, in winter is is very cold and in heavy rains we have flooding. They seem to thrive in quite adverse conditions. In summer they scurry around, eating huge amounts, but will move to the shade in the middle of the day. In winter they come out in the middle of the day on sunny days, but as soon as the temperature drops they bury themselves in a sandy hole. They are also very aware of any change in barometric pressure and you can tell by their behaviour that rain is due hours before it appears.

Fascinating tortoises and I think they like to struggle to survive, their very wildness is what makes them happy. Could be why they are such poor adapters to captivity.
 

Tom

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Hi Tom

You know, if you smashed the bone, he would walk away and never touch it again. They are so independent. They love fresh Hibiscus flowers but I have to drop them, as if accidentally, a metre in front of them. If you put the flower too close, or God forbid, try to feed them, they scramble away as if you are trying to poison them.

Some, we have been in contact with for 12 years, and they are no friendlier today than the day we fist saw them. We do pick them up, and they don't mind having their heads and chins scratched, but they never seek us out. They tolerate us in exchange for access to a large indigenous garden.

One particularly large and old male, the Alpha in the area, will come up to the tap sometimes during drier periods. He knows it is a source of water and expects us to turn it on for him. We call him Meanie as all he does is fight and have sex. If he sees a male he battles, if he sees a female he mates. He is the biggest one I have ever seen and so unpleasant that you can't help but adore him. He stinks to high heaven and many years ago I made the mistake of washing him in a big bowl of luke warm water. He struggled like mad, was absolutely furious and left the property for over a month.

Was thinking about your questions about them not surviving well in captivity and I wonder if their personality might have something to do with it. They are so wild, aggressive and untameable.

Also, our climate is so unpredictable and quite extreme. They always say that we can have four seasons in one day and that is true. We have intense heat, high humidity often but also dry periods, in winter is is very cold and in heavy rains we have flooding. They seem to thrive in quite adverse conditions. In summer they scurry around, eating huge amounts, but will move to the shade in the middle of the day. In winter they come out in the middle of the day on sunny days, but as soon as the temperature drops they bury themselves in a sandy hole. They are also very aware of any change in barometric pressure and you can tell by their behaviour that rain is due hours before it appears.

Fascinating tortoises and I think they like to struggle to survive, their very wildness is what makes them happy. Could be why they are such poor adapters to captivity.

So much fantastic insight here. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write all this for us to learn from.

May I ask for more info? Do you know the names of the plants that you see them typically eating? If not, would you mind posting some pics of those plants. Knowing what they eat in the wild and trying to propagate it or duplicate it here might be a useful step for us.

One of the few keepers that have had success with this species here is of the opinion that they should live outside in a large garden (We call them yards, or backyards here…) in the right climactic zone, and be left alone. He doesn't heat them at all. His climate is near the coast and very similar to yours. Near freezing on some winter nights. Hot and dry on summer days. Heavy rain sometimes. Sometimes dry, sometimes humid. He feeds a wide variety of "natural" type foods.
 

JeannineD

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Location (City and/or State)
Garden Route, South Africa
So much fantastic insight here. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write all this for us to learn from.

May I ask for more info? Do you know the names of the plants that you see them typically eating? If not, would you mind posting some pics of those plants. Knowing what they eat in the wild and trying to propagate it or duplicate it here might be a useful step for us.

One of the few keepers that have had success with this species here is of the opinion that they should live outside in a large garden (We call them yards, or backyards here…) in the right climactic zone, and be left alone. He doesn't heat them at all. His climate is near the coast and very similar to yours. Near freezing on some winter nights. Hot and dry on summer days. Heavy rain sometimes. Sometimes dry, sometimes humid. He feeds a wide variety of "natural" type foods.

That keeper has the perfect plan. Sounds like an ideal environment for them. They seem to need the extreme contrast in temperatures. They are so active when it is warm that I think they need the total shut down that happens when it gets cold.

They love gazanias (eat the entire plant until it is just a stalk), weeds like dandelions and patches of clover growing in lawn, they love Cape chickweed, all daisies, arctotis (they eat the silver leaves and the flowers), they get into the herb garden too and eat wild rocket and even kale. I have seen them eating egg shells leftover after bird hatch too. They take bites out of a variety of succulents, probably for the moisture. I do see them drink from puddles after rain, we give them no water. Very fond of hibiscus flowers, especially the red ones. Love cape honeysuckle flowers. They seem to like a very broad variety and cover big distances, grazing all the time. They eat a LOT when it is warm and are very active.

I think you should get planting, this is very exciting!
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
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Joined
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Location (City and/or State)
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They love gazanias (eat the entire plant until it is just a stalk), weeds like dandelions and patches of clover growing in lawn, they love Cape chickweed, all daisies, arctotis (they eat the silver leaves and the flowers), they get into the herb garden too and eat wild rocket and even kale. I have seen them eating egg shells leftover after bird hatch too. They take bites out of a variety of succulents, probably for the moisture. I do see them drink from puddles after rain, we give them no water. Very fond of hibiscus flowers, especially the red ones. Love cape honeysuckle flowers. They seem to like a very broad variety and cover big distances, grazing all the time. They eat a LOT when it is warm and are very active.

I think you should get planting, this is very exciting!

This is very helpful. I already grow lots of gazanias. They do well in my climate here. I also grow Cape Honeysuckle (Red Flowers), arugula (Rocket) dandelions and clover. I have 4 types of ground cover succulents and 8 varieties of spineless opuntia cactus. I grow African Hibiscus every year and have sources for safe regular hibiscus. I grow a bunch of other things in addition to all of these, so I should be good to go whenever I get some tortoises to work with.

I'll have to look up Cape Chickweed and arctotis.

Thanks for the list. Feel free to add to it anytime.
 

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