Huge leopard tortoises

GeoTerraTestudo

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
3,311
Location (City and/or State)
Broomfield, Colorado
Check out these enormous leopard tortoises!

ee9b8d502951a0d4d542363292862.jpg
 

JennBell0725

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
306
Wow. Why are they stacking them?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using TortForum mobile app
 

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
I'm not sure if this is a scam. I've seen that very same picture before, a very long time ago in an article showing how big leopard tortoises used to get, and the article included pictures of empty leopard shells. I can't remember the article name or when/where I saw it. But it wasn't a "for sale" article.
 

Tom

The Dog Trainer
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jan 9, 2010
Messages
63,269
Location (City and/or State)
Southern California
Those are Ethiopian leopards. They get huge. They are not available in the states. That picture is reportedly from a keeper in Spain that managed to get some. They are rumored to be occasionally available in Europe, and supposedly they are somewhat delicate. Knowing where they come from, I wonder of they were not kept hot enough.
 

theelectraco

New Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
1,484
How does something like that happen? Is it like mini dogs where small adults were bread to produce small babies and then eventually the whole gene pool was just smaller tortoises?
 

wellington

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Tortoise Club
Joined
Sep 6, 2011
Messages
49,660
Location (City and/or State)
Chicago, Illinois, USA
It does seem kinda funny that the only one you can see any legs on, is the one he's holding. All the others, only the shell. No heads, feet, legs, tail, just shell. Hmmmm
 

yagyujubei

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2010
Messages
2,407
Location (City and/or State)
Amish Country
His name is David Sanchez. He is the guy who imported all those Ethiopian/Somalian leopards in '05. I believe he sells hatchlings from his site. I think he's in Madrid. There are several youtube videos of his.
 

conservation

Active Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
546
Interesting. So you are saying his bloodline is available in the US?
 

GeoTerraTestudo

Active Member
5 Year Member
Joined
May 7, 2011
Messages
3,311
Location (City and/or State)
Broomfield, Colorado
theelectraco said:
How does something like that happen? Is it like mini dogs where small adults were bread to produce small babies and then eventually the whole gene pool was just smaller tortoises?

No, it's just naturally occurring variability within a species. Some populations/races/subspecies have just evolved to be bigger than others. This could be due to a variety of factors, including climate, food availability, predation pressure, sexual selection, or just random mutation.

Note: In some other cases, human hunting has shrunken wild animals. Sperm whales, which are still huge, don't get to be as enormous as they used to, because all the giants were hunted out. Elephants today tend to have smaller tusks, again because the ones with the huge tusks were shot for trophies and removed from the gene pool. And so on. But these leopard tortoises just happen to be from a population that produces very large individuals.

wellington said:
It does seem kinda funny that the only one you can see any legs on, is the one he's holding. All the others, only the shell. No heads, feet, legs, tail, just shell. Hmmmm

You can see the left hind leg of the one on the far right, too.
 

BeeBee*BeeLeaves

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Mar 17, 2013
Messages
2,312
Location (City and/or State)
Orange County, So Cal
Epic! Notice the fog. Hot and humid in tropical Ethiopia? Check.

Okay, no leopards allowed in to US. But, wondering, has anyone quadruple-checked (you know how laws can be)to be sure it says from everywhere in the world? Or what if it says just from Africa? Maybe the tick is only present in African animals. That would/may mean that captive bred babies from Spain can come in. Yay! Just saying.
 

tortadise

Well-Known Member
Moderator
10 Year Member!
Joined
Mar 2, 2012
Messages
9,560
Location (City and/or State)
Tropical South Texas
BeeBee*BeeLeaves said:
Epic! Notice the fog. Hot and humid in tropical Ethiopia? Check.

Okay, no leopards allowed in to US. But, wondering, has anyone quadruple-checked (you know how laws can be)to be sure it says from everywhere in the world? Or what if it says just from Africa? Maybe the tick is only present in African animals. That would/may mean that captive bred babies from Spain can come in. Yay! Just saying.

Yes, It will not happen. USDA has them on a ban list, along with sulcatas, and Bells hinge-backs. You can Import the eggs in. But good luck finding anyone to ship you some eggs.
 
Top