Fighting Angulates

[JeannineD]

Hello there
I live in the South Western Cape in South Africa and my garden is a war zone. It's large, totally indigenous and we have about a dozen Angulates that come and go at will. Lately, I can't walk outside without hearing scuffling, the Angulates are all at war. I can see why they are called fighting tortoises!
They are constantly knocking each other over and making an unearthly high pitched screeching. It's like the Colosseum out there.

 

[Jacqui]

Hi and welcome! Are they always this aggressive to each other or is it more seasonal?

 

[JeannineD]

Hi and welcome! Are they always this aggressive to each other or is it more seasonal?

Hi Jacqui
It's definitely seasonal, we do have outbreaks of peace!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Jeannine:

Welcome to the Tortoise Forum!!

How lucky you are to be able to see tortoises in their natural home range, however, I'm surprised that you would see two males at the same time. I have been under the assumption that males each had their own range and they usually didn't intersect with other males' ranges.

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures with us. I have never seen a Chersina angulata before. Its so pretty, that red tinge on the bottom shell.

 

[Jacqui]

I had wondered with the red, is that the usual color on them? Except for like now, when I assume it's breeding season, do you normally see them only by themselves?

 

[JeannineD]

Hey there Yvonne
We live in quite a rural area and our gates are always open, so they wander in at will. There seem to be a lot of males around at the moment, and one particularly aggressive older guy we call Meanie, who beats everyone up. They seem to hatch in our garden as we are always finding babies - so cute you can't believe they grow up to be such gladiators. I'll post some pics in another thread.

 

[jeffbens0n]

Awesome to see this! I saw a video of them doing this in the wild, but its amazing that you have this going on right in your backyard!

 

[JeannineD]

They always have the red, we actually call them Rooipens tortoises (Red Bellies). They are usually by themselves but you have quite a clutch in an area, so encounters happen all the time. They are very active, and move very quickly for tortoises.

 

[JeannineD]

It is Jeff, we appreciate them every day. Our whole family is obsessed with the little guys.

 

[Neal]

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Tom]

That is so cool.

 

[batchick]

That's great. We've got one angulate in our garden (in Cape Town). Glad he's not got any competition, but maybe that's why he keeps ramming my feet at the moment...

 

[DesertGrandma]

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures. We love to hear stories like these.

 

[Jacqui]

That's great. We've got one angulate in our garden (in Cape Town). Glad he's not got any competition, but maybe that's why he keeps ramming my feet at the moment...

So the poor guy has a few females all to himself?

 

[bigred]

Pretty cool to see them in natural environment- I would love to find some of those little hatchlings in my garden

 

[GeoTerraTestudo]

Sweet!