Older Tortoise Species ID

[tortolicious]

Hello Tortoise Forum! I inherited a older tortoise from family this year. Have kept 3 other DT's over the past 30 years. (have multiple CA permits) This tortoise is much larger and has different behavior than any DT I have kept. He's 16.5inches carapace length, 10.5inches wide and about 21lbs. He moves very fast and will chase people down until he can ram you or you give him food. He will not drink or soak in any type of water and will only graze if food is not provided daily. Original Fish and Game and AT rescue paperwork only list him as Gopherus sp. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

 

[TammyJ]

He's fabulous 😍!

 

[Tom]

He's just a big bull male DT. This one would be dominating the territory if he were still out in the wild. Handsome man, he is.

 

[AmandaF]

He is amazing x

 

[EppsDynasty]

A true "Old Man" he is. That is an amazing tortoise, consider yourself very lucky.

 

[SuzanneZ]

Bossy Dude. 😂

 

[jsheffield]

Gorgeous!

J

 

[zovick]

Hello Tortoise Forum! I inherited a older tortoise from family this year. Have kept 3 other DT's over the past 30 years. (have multiple CA permits) This tortoise is much larger and has different behavior than any DT I have kept. He's 16.5inches carapace length, 10.5inches wide and about 21lbs. He moves very fast and will chase people down until he can ram you or you give him food. He will not drink or soak in any type of water and will only graze if food is not provided daily. Original Fish and Game and AT rescue paperwork only list him as Gopherus sp. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated!View attachment 363101

One other possibility is that he could be a Gopherus flavomarginatus from Mexico. They are called the Bolson Tortoise. They do get that large (and even larger) and although protected now, some of all sizes were imported into the US and sold to tortoise fanciers back in 1967. I wonder if he is one of those imports who has survived 56 years in captivity in CA.

I had a couple of them back then, and they were very fast movers and pretty shy as they were freshly WC animals.

 

[Yvonne G]

One other possibility is that he could be a Gopherus flavomarginatus from Mexico. They are called the Bolson Tortoise. They do get that large (and even larger) and although protected now, some of all sizes were imported into the US and sold to tortoise fanciers back in 1967. I wonder if he is one of those imports who has survived 56 years in captivity in CA.

I had a couple of them back then, and they were very fast movers and pretty shy as they were freshly WC animals.

I'm tending to agree with you. It's the front leg scales that made me wonder. Our desert tortoises' front leg scales tend to lay flat while this guy's scales stick up a bit.

 

[tortolicious]

Thank you all for your input! Regardless of species, I'm just grateful to have this old man . He's a unusual character indeed...He just awoke from Brumation, warmed in the sun and ate pounds of wet greens then went back to his hibernation spot. Is this normal? I'm in So. California and all my previous DT's came out around Easter and stayed out. Any advice would be appreciated...thanks...