Living Wild

[Joshua Forshaw]

I have a Herman Tortoise living wild in my garden in Central France. She is over 40 years old and I've a few facts that might be of interest.
She went into hibernation on the 26th October and came out on the 16th April, so thats 10 days short of 6 months. She went in at 2.3 kgs and came out at 1.8 kgs. She eat until the last day but dug down almost 3 feet at an angle of 30 degrees which must have took a few days. She came out over four feet from the point of entry and did not eat properly for 4 days until her digestive system started again. She appears at about 9.00am and warms up in the sun for about an hour before searching for food. She heads for shelter for the night one hour before the sun goes down. The temperature dropped to minus 18 degrees in the winter and we had snow on the ground for over a month.

 

[DonaTello's-Mom]

Wow thats very interesting, thanks for sharing with us Joshua!

 

[Yvonne G]

Hi Joshua:

to the forum!!

France, huh? Wow! Thanks so much for sharing that information with us. Are Hermann's tortoises native to your locale? I'm actually surprised that your tortoise lost weight during hibernation. Most of the time they either stay the same weight, or gain a little. I am a big proponent of tortoises living wild. Glad to hear that yours is doing so well in his "wild" state.

 

[Joshua Forshaw]

Thanks for the welcome

I had read that they don't normally lose weight but I put it down to her eating right up to digging down and thought she may have been active for a while till she settled and then for the dig back to the surface. She caught us off guard because she was really active and then went under a pile of leaves and when we checked a few days later the top of her shell was well under the soil. She is not native to our region and must have been a pet at some time.

I'll attach a photo when I work out how to reduce the file size to 500 k
I know the camera date is the wrong year.

 

[GBtortoises]

Joshua,

I live in the U.S. in the New York State in the Catskill Mountains. Many of my Eastern Hermann's and my Russian tortoises hibernate outdoors here too. Very much in the same conditions that you have described. My temperatures here get as low as -20f and average about 20f above zero much of the winter. Most of mine went into hibernation outdoors in mid October and I did not see the first ones until about mid April when we had a warm spell for a few days. Finally, yesterday on May 1st I can say that I acutally saw all of the outdoor tortoises out and active. The temperature here was unseasonally warm yesterday at about 28c. It is also supposed to be much of the same today with a rainshower which should really get them going. I also put all of the tortoises that were indoors out yesterday. I'd be very interested in hearing more about and seeing photos of your tortoises outdoor living area.

 

[Nay]

Do you both, GBtortoises, and Joshua, give supplemental dirt, leaves etc. to bury in and do they go to that spot? Or do they find their own?
Just curious.
Thanks
Na

 

[bettinge]

Thanks Joshua, I find facts like this very interesting and detailed. That is more weight loss (about 25%) than I would have expected.

Gary (GB), I know you have said you don't typically weigh your tortoises, but wonder if you know what % weight losses yours typically have? I was thinking, I must have read it somewhere, that over 10% was too much. Maybe I'm thinking of refrigerator wieght loss over 10% is bad because they are probably too dry and dehydrating.

 

[GBtortoises]

Do you both, GBtortoises, and Joshua, give supplemental dirt, leaves etc. to bury in and do they go to that spot? Or do they find their own?
Just curious.
Thanks
Na

Mine have 3'x3'x1' high fiberglass, wood sided shelters with no floors that they use as hide boxes when they're active. They hibernate in these same shelters. They (the shelters) always have straw packed in them for insulation from the heat and cold. The tortoises simply dig down into the soft dirt burying themselves until the soil is about an inch above the top of their carapace. I check them in the late fall to make sure that all are approximately in the center of the shelter, under the dirt and straw. I then add mound of straw on top of the shelter so that the entire mound is about 2-2.5' tall and 5-6' in diameter with the shelter being in the center of the mound. I cover the entire things with clear plastic, weighted down, around the edges to keep rain and melting snow from getting into the shelter. In the spring the tortoises come up on their own and spend may hours basking above the straw but under the plastic which acts like a greenhouse.

---

Gary (GB), I know you have said you don't typically weigh your tortoises, but wonder if you know what % weight losses yours typically have? I was thinking, I must have read it somewhere, that over 10% was too much. Maybe I'm thinking of refrigerator wieght loss over 10% is bad because they are probably too dry and dehydrating.

I've never weighed any of them so I have no idea how much weight they may lose during hibernation. There is no doubt that some weight must be lost in hibernation based on the fact that they are burning calories (albeit few) and not taking any in. I think most of the weight loss in artificial refrigerator hibernation comes from dehydration as you suspect. Along with the usual manner of hibernating them which is to leave their bodies partially or complete exposed to air circulation within the refrigerator. I think this greatly adds to their dehydration during artificial hibernation.
A few times I have checked the "holes" (for lack of a better description) that my tortoises come out of very soon after they emerge and those holes are far from dry! Some tortoises have emerged with mud on them and some with condensation. All have emerged very alert and fairly strong considering that they have just awoke from a 5-6 month sleep with no food, water, warmth or daylight.

 

[Joshua Forshaw]

Last summer I constructed a cave with a 50/50 sand / sieved soil mix base down to one metre deep but she gave it a good looking over and ignored it for the rest of the year.
The garden is 8000 sq metre which is a medium size garden by France standards so she has lots of room to roam. She sleeps in the same area under a large hedge each night and picked a place to dig down away from any large trees up against a stone wall. We don't give her any supplements but have planted all the types of food she loves. Our borders look funny with lettuce and veg growing in with the flowers but she is worth it. She hates the rain which I find strange and rapidly heads for cover just before it rains. This helps us with washing on the line

 

[Joshua Forshaw]

This is about 40 minutes after she broke through the surface of the soil.
I went to get my camera then but as usual the battery was flat. I put it on charge and got this photo later. She was exhausted and waited several minutes before each push. Later I reached down the burrow she had left and it went out at about 30 degrees and just about my whole arm went in to my finger tips. I'll weight her again on the first of each month to see how her weight changes. The scales are digital and meant for humans but seem to be accurate at low weights. ( I use it for my hand luggage, anyway )