New and hungry for information

[onarock]

It all makes sense now. The pardalis that you claimed was 30" in diameter and high domed was probably a galop.... Its well known that Domkrag was once the largest leopard tort in the world and he was just under 26". With more and more people out studying the babcocki from Ethiopia/Somalia, I wouldnt be surprised if we started seeing pics of leopards WELL Over 30".

Marithaven, thanks for this very interesting thread

I can't believe you actually have photos of exactly what I was talking about!!! Those are very similar to the giant one that I saw. They must be the same type from the same area.

 

[Jacob]

Awesome pictures!

 

[Tom]

You're saying the giants in the picture are gallopogos? lol, t's hard to tell how big they are without anything to compare it too. But, if that smaller one is at least ten inches, and the record leopard size is 26" than they couldn't be leopards. Now I'm embarrassed.

Haha. Me too. When I saw these yesterday I was on my little mini laptop with the 10" screen in a car in broad daylight. Oops. On my 17" monitor at home its pretty obvious they are Aldabras. Not the first time I've done that on my little screen.

D'oh!

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I'm confused Tom,are you saying galopagos tortoises are native to south africa?

No. No I'm not saying that. You might be confused, but its not about anything I said, since there are no galops pictured.

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It all makes sense now. The pardalis that you claimed was 30" in diameter and high domed was probably a galop.... Its well known that Domkrag was once the largest leopard tort in the world and he was just under 26". With more and more people out studying the babcocki from Ethiopia/Somalia, I wouldnt be surprised if we started seeing pics of leopards WELL Over 30".

Marithaven, thanks for this very interesting thread

I can't believe you actually have photos of exactly what I was talking about!!! Those are very similar to the giant one that I saw. They must be the same type from the same area.

No the one I saw was definitely a leopard. It had the characteristic scales on the front legs and the splotchy pattern on the shell that only leopards have. We already know that you and your cohorts won't take my word for it, so there is no point in arguing it. If I ever go back there I'll get a pic. If I never go back there, well you can just assume whatever you want.

 

[onarock]

We know Tom, it's o.k. Ive read this thread and the Ethopian thread, I think WE can All put it together. There is a VERY, VERY clear difference between those HUGE torts and ANY leopard. You wrote "exactly what I was talking about" not my words, yours. Again, we all know what you meant, its o.k. to be wrong. We all know that you and your cohorts all believe that the largest leopard tortoise is the Cape South Africans and its just not true. I will wait for you to prove me wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Laura]

well.. there are people who live there.. so have them take apicture and post it...
Stace is home.. getting married.. maybe she can go find the place you are talking about..
Tom do you recall where it was??

 

[onarock]

Laura, I dont think that matters. The ongoing discussion has been what is the larger sub.sp. and what sup.sp. is more cold tollerant. Weather on not there is 1 rogue animal larger than all the others does not disprove that the "mean" size of the Ethiopian/Somali's is larger than the Cape SA's. A discussion that was "put to bed" many threads ago.

 

[Jacqui]

Folks, remember this is a welcome thread, not a leopard debate thread. You want to debate, please move it to the debate section.

 

[John]

No. No I'm not saying that. You might be confused, but its not about anything I said, since there are no galops pictured.



Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-New-and-hungry-for-information?page=3#ixzz1KKwk9y6L Lol Tom,you are correcting me now ha nice arogant response.My 11 year old knew those were not leopards he was viewing the pic on a smart phone, what size screen is on a blackberry anyway.
While were on the subject lets revisit the so called 30" tort that you speak about, what was the origin of this animal? You say it was penned up with other animals at a convienence store. Did you talk to the owner of same animal? Are you just taking it for granted it is from s.a. because that is where it was when you saw it? You know kinda like how my nieghbor thinks there are large box turtles in my yard. Anyway point is, that animal could have come from anywhere, as I said before, So when ya get a pic maybe you should get some info also since this was a captive animal of unknown origin.Also Tom, I am a little suprised you have not comented on the hybridization taking place in south africa, knowing how strong you have come out against it in other threads.

 

[Jacqui]

No. No I'm not saying that. You might be confused, but its not about anything I said, since there are no galops pictured.



Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-New-and-hungry-for-information?page=3#ixzz1KKwk9y6L Lol Tom,you are correcting me now ha nice arogant response.My 11 year old knew those were not leopards he was viewing the pic on a smart phone, what size screen is on a blackberry anyway.
While were on the subject lets revisit the so called 30" tort that you speak about, what was the origin of this animal? You say it was penned up with other animals at a convienence store. Did you talk to the owner of same animal? Are you just taking it for granted it is from s.a. because that is where it was when you saw it? You know kinda like how my nieghbor thinks there are large box turtles in my yard. Anyway point is, that animal could have come from anywhere, as I said before, So when ya get a pic maybe you should get some info also since this was a captive animal of unknown origin.Also Tom, I am a little suprised you have not comented on the hybridization taking place in south africa, knowing how strong you have come out against it in other threads.

Please get back to this being a welcoming thread!

 

[John]

Welcome to the forum Maritha.

 

[onarock]

Welcome Maritha

 

[marithaven]

Welcome Maritha!

As you may have noticed we spend alot of time arguing about leopard tortoises on this forum. Many of us are very fascinated with them. It may be nice to have somebody around with first hand knowledge of them in their place of origin (well one place of origin at least).

Personally, I'd love all the details you can share, but don't even know where to start asking questions

For starters maybe, do you know where exactly those giants come from? Or are they just really old?
Hallo Balboa
My apologies for that short answer nearly two weeks ago. We went away for a couple of days and was interupted by time to go.

The Galapagos was founded on Galapagos Island. As far as i know there is still 11 subspecies living. It is the same as our tortoises taking years to grow into its giagantism. Known to reach the ages of 150 years old but is was recorded that one lived over 170 years old. As far as i know they named some of the subspecies after the islands they were founded on for example Espanola tortoise comes from Espanola Island, Galapagos comes from the Galapagos Island however Galapagos Island was once home to 14 or 15 subspecies of this giant.
It was believed that the subspecies drifted on logs etc to other islands and there became species on their own.
You should read the story about Lonesome George a Pinta tortoise from Pinta Island. The last of his subspecies.
Don't know if they could manage to get his bloodline passed on.
It is so Intersting once you start reading about these giants you cannot stop.

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What? Who here thinks that those HUGE tortoises in the second set of pics are Leopards?...

Hi Onarock
Yes the second picture of the huge ones and small one is Galapagos or one of its subspecies. The owner himself is not too sure wether it is a Aldabri or Galapagos . Going back to the information i have i also think it is the Galapagos. The smaller one is a Pardalis Babcocki i hope

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What? Who here thinks that those HUGE tortoises in the second set of pics are Leopards?...

Hi Onarock
Sorry that remark was for Neal i am still snoozing after the holidays

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No. No I'm not saying that. You might be confused, but its not about anything I said, since there are no galops pictured.



Read more: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/Thread-New-and-hungry-for-information?page=3#ixzz1KKwk9y6L Lol Tom,you are correcting me now ha nice arogant response.My 11 year old knew those were not leopards he was viewing the pic on a smart phone, what size screen is on a blackberry anyway.
While were on the subject lets revisit the so called 30" tort that you speak about, what was the origin of this animal? You say it was penned up with other animals at a convienence store. Did you talk to the owner of same animal? Are you just taking it for granted it is from s.a. because that is where it was when you saw it? You know kinda like how my nieghbor thinks there are large box turtles in my yard. Anyway point is, that animal could have come from anywhere, as I said before, So when ya get a pic maybe you should get some info also since this was a captive animal of unknown origin.Also Tom, I am a little suprised you have not comented on the hybridization taking place in south africa, knowing how strong you have come out against it in other threads.

Guys and girls, This was a great welcome from you all, I do not mind the opinions of you all. That's why we are here on the forum. Always something to learn.
Jacqui I would just like to tell everyone that here in SA the Galapagos,Aldabri, Pinta etc is few to be seen. But when you see one you just have to share it with every body.
We have know 4 Leopards. 3 Pardalis Babcocki and one Pardalis Pardalis.
I think the Pardalis Pardalis can tolerate more cold. Why i say that is because the one comes from Bethlehem in SA where temperatures goes below -5 degrees in winter. She has a much darker shell most probably to absorb more heat. Then we have the Babcocki's with a light shell-more cream and brown/black. They come from the Eastern Province where it is extremely hot and dry, i think their colours are so the fend off heat. But then we got another one over this weekend that comes from Kakemas in Cape province thatr is yellow and black. I will post three individual photos of the three different colours. The one from Bethlehem at this stage is the biggest, but in most of our books they say the Pardalis Pardalis grows larger than the Babcocki, but then we bought a new book and in there they reckon the Babcocki grows larger than the Pardalis Pardalis. Now i don't know whom to believe. And to know from self raising we will have to wait another couple of years to know what the truth is or does it vary from tort to tort?
Thank you all for the welcomes once again.
I will follow the discussion thread and post notes etc as we go along with our tortoises and there are a couple of things we have noticed about the species we have that i would love to share

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