Radiated Tortoise Pyramiding/Mistreatment

[Jacobjtd]

So let me start this off with these are not my tortoises. I love to the zoo but on my visit today I noticed something very strange. All of the tortoises where pyramiding heavily.
Above is the picture of one of the tortoises. Along with:
In the enclosure of

Now as someone who loves tortoises, seeing all of them pyramiding and so badly too was extremely concerning. I love tortoises will all my heart and I have a passion for caring for my hermann tortoise, Chives, and my eastern box turtle, Smoky. So seeing these tortoises in this condition made me nervous about their treatment. I am not saying I believe the zoo caused all of this but I am nervous as I noticed pyramiding on all of the other tortoises and even a manager there and numerous workers kept trying to tell me that pyramiding is okay and normal. As their tortoises are viewed as critically endangered I am worried about their perhaps mistreatment. Can anyone tell me more about this and what I should perhaps do?

 

[G-stars]

The fact is that zoos are an educational source to the public. This makes most believe that pyramiding is normal and that isn't ok. Not saying that pyramided animals can't be healthy but it is not normal.

Regarding your question not much you can do. I've argued with a couple zoos regarding their care on animals. They are considered the "experts" but many have outdated information.

I dream of the day that most zoos realize they are not offering the best care to their animals and do something about it.

 

[Yvonne G]

The zoo probably got the animals in that condition, because it happened during the tortoises' first year of life. It does look like that enclosure is pretty small for all those animals, and it certainly is quite dry. But there's nothing to be done about the pyramiding at this point in their lives.

 

[Jacobjtd]

I understand that there's no way to reverse pyramiding but even their baby tortoises they just got (Galapagos) are starting to pyramid and I want to know what you guys can tell me about the it more so. Like should I contact to person in charge of the tortoises at that part of the zoo should I write a strongly worded letter? What?

 

[deadheadvet]

I'm going to chime in here to take a contrarian position as to being critical of the appearance of pyramiding on these tortoises. It is mine and other knowledgeable tortoise keepers that there is a genetic component to "pyramiding". Some of these animals are on perfect diets, plenty of sunshine and humidity. Still they will develop some significant bumping of the carapace. When speaking of Radiated tortoises, they are in the Geometric group of tortoises where perceived pyramiding is actually normal. There are definite situations where pyramiding is from poor husbandry. I have a nice group of Rads that all have excellent diets, sunshine during the summer months and maintain humidity the rest of the year. A few from the same genetic line have more bumping than others from other lines. So let's not judge the keepers without fully understanding the daily care they are receiving.

 

[Jacobjtd]

The house they were kept in was dry and the picture above shows their type of environment. I'm sorry but I do not believe that
Such extreme pyramiding is just genetics without anything else involved. The people I spoke with believed that was I considered pyramiding and pointed out on ALL of their tortoises was natural and even though it was extreme in some cases it just proves their health. Some other pyramiding includes

And

I am sorry if the pictures are not the highest quality i was with my family and they wanted to go to the next exhibit so I quickly got those photos which some show the heavy pyramiding and some show minor.

 

[Jacobjtd]

Now for anyone else out there I would like to reiterate myself, as I had stated originally in my first post, and say that these sights made me very nervous of mistreatment however what I am asking is what to do for more information weather someone here could provide it or direct me to an outside source so I can look more into it.

 

[Yvonne G]

Jacob:

You can get your point across with the zoo much better if you stay kind and humble. We have discovered that pyramiding occurrs in the first year of life when the baby is kept too dry. I've seen it with my own aldabran and leopard tortoises. I have a pretty bumpy leopard from before I knew about humidity, and two VERY smooth leopards once I changed the way I started the babies.

Maybe you could print out Tom's info on raising the babies in humidity and include it in your humble and nice letter to the zoo. Of course, if the Aldabran tortoises are past that first year, it's already too late to help them grow smoothly.

 

[keepergale]

What zoo were these tortoises at?

 

[Jacobjtd]

Brookfield

 

[dmmj]

Zoos are just starting to raise them more humid at least here in CA

 

[keepergale]

A little surprised as Brookfield is pretty well thought of in the Zoo community.
The tortoises appear to be mature. In the zoos defense those tortoises may have began their pyramiding many years ago. It really has not been that long ago when the common wisdom was too much protein was the cause of pyramiding. I have to confess to pyramiding CDT hatchlings back in the day. It wasn't for a lack of caring.