Some great photos and video of wild Russian tortoises in their native Central Asia:
http://www.arkive.org/afghan-tortoise/testudo-horsfieldii/
http://www.arkive.org/afghan-tortoise/testudo-horsfieldii/
emysemys said:Thanks for the link. Nice pictures.
I'm going to start referring to Russian tortoises as Afghan tortoises from now on. Let's all do it, and see how long it takes for us to change folks from calling them Russians.
GeoTerraTestudo said:emysemys said:Thanks for the link. Nice pictures.
I'm going to start referring to Russian tortoises as Afghan tortoises from now on. Let's all do it, and see how long it takes for us to change folks from calling them Russians.
I've toyed with this idea myself, and it just might work (after all, the distinction between "bison" and "buffalo" is finally in the popular consciousness now after 130 years, so such name changes might work for other animals, too). The thing is, Testudo horsfieldii is found not only in Russia and Afghanistan, but also Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China. The only descriptive, non-national name that really fits is "steppe tortoise," since this species is native to Central Asia's grasslands and deserts (which is why I refer to it as such in my signature). If we're going to try and change this animal's common name from "Russian tortoise" to something else, I think that something else should be "steppe tortoise," don't you?
emysemys said:Well, there are a few deserts in the world, and we call our Gopherus agassizii the desert tortoise, so why not steppe for the russian tortoises. I'll start right away.