Hybridizing

[Terry Allan Hall]

Can a Testudo hermanni and a Testudo graeca interbreed?

Reason I ask is that I've been offered a small Testudo (alledgedly) hermanni b., but it seems to have a spur on both thighs! Otherwise, it looks like a average normal T. h. b.

The breeder explained that he'd put a male T. g. in the pen w/ his hermmanni b. females for a day or two, while he was finishing up it's pen, but that he's not aware of any reptilian romance transpiring...and that, thus far, he's had no T. g.s hatched.

Any thoughts/opinions?

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Guess I should've searched first...according to this post hermanni/graeca hybrids have been seen.

http://tortoiseforum.org/thread-13196.html?highlight=hybrid

 

[egyptiandan]

We would need to see pictures to tell for sure. Also it would be nice to see pictures of his Hermanns and Greeks.
I'm just wondering why if he has both species, that he put the male Greek in with the Hermanns and not in with his Greek females. The story seems fishy to me.

Danny

 

[Terry Allan Hall]

We would need to see pictures to tell for sure. Also it would be nice to see pictures of his Hermanns and Greeks.
I'm just wondering why if he has both species, that he put the male Greek in with the Hermanns and not in with his Greek females. The story seems fishy to me.

Danny

Will get a pic up of this lil' dude soon (brought him home last night on a buy-on-approval deal and we've decided to adopt him, and we've named him Ptolemy), and I'll ask if the seller'd mind me taking pics of his torts, as soon as I see him to pay for Ptolemy...likely next week, when next I'm in Dallas.

To answer your question: As I understand it, he only had the one greek at the time...the youngster is probably 2 yoa, and his 1st greek clutch was less than a year ago, I'm told.

Ptolemy seems to be pretty healthy, has an excellent appetite, and the guy has offered the lil' dude to me for $35, thus, I'll be out building Ptolemy a pen of his own tomorrow.

Edit: OTOH, after examining a lot of googled T. g. pics, I'm thinking Ptolemy's just a normal greek (no idea what subspecies)...not as many T. h. b. features as I initially thought - significantly, he has prominant symmetrical head markings, movable plates at posterior of underside, and, of course, the spurs I mentioned...it occurs to me that this guy might've gotten a young male in w/ the dozen or so females he bought (some are fairly large but, one, at least, is just a bit smaller than Ptolemy) and just wants to get his $$$ back out of it...possibly a bit shady, but the price seems fair.