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- Jun 16, 2013
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Does anyone hibernate their GPP?
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Tom said:I lived in SA for four months and had the opportunity to see a lot of wild tortoises and talk to a lot of locals. One of our crew lived in the mountains in SA in a pretty remote area. He said he had lots of wild leopards around him and they most certainly did hibernate in winter as it frequently snows there. He told me that they do not hibernate in other parts of the range where it does not get so cold.
I saw some wild ones on the coast down at the Cape Preserve Lighthouse tourist area. It was sunny, 50-55 degrees with 30-40 mph winds and those tortoises were running around like nothing was wrong. There were just truckin' along and going about their business like any other day. The tortoises down there were very dark and very distinct looking, and they don't look like the SA leopards we have here. I suspect the SA leopards we have here, like the ones that Torts R us recently posted pics of, and the adults that so many of our forum member's Gpp came out of, are from the North of SA. Maybe Joberg or Pretoria. I don't have any verification of their exact origin one way or the other, but they look decidedly different to me.
I would not attempt to hibernate any leopard unless you are 100% certain exactly where in the range they came from. SA is a huge place and the climates and conditions vary just as much as they do here in the US. Consider Phoenix compared to Denver, or Miami vs. San Francisco.
I have never noticed the flaring you keep talking about, but now I'm going to start paying attention to it. I will also go back and review the pics of WCs that I have. My Gpp supplier also has three locality specific Gpb groups and he pointed out the carapace flaring and degree of serration on the flares as one of the distinguishing features to me.
There is no doubt that captive raised tortoises look different than wild tortoises of the same species. This is true for all of them, not just leopards. When looking at leopards keep in mind the age of the animals you are looking at. Most of the captive animals you see pics of are fairly young animals while most of the WC one you see pics of are decades old.
cdmay said:It does seem to be the case that some populations of leopard tortoises in S.A. are decidedly darker than others. A friend of mine traveled all over the region a few years ago and of course photographed many of the leopards. I was surprised at how variable they were. But I think the darker animals tended to be from more mountainous areas. Maybe the darker coloration is an adaptation to warming up quicker as it is with many snakes?
Tom, please post some W/C photos!
Yashil Ghazi said:Hey
Yes , some leopards here are very dark when they get old, and have almost no patterns. Those ones are almost always from the higher up areas and are actually called Mountain tortoises by locals , but are pretty much leopards.The leopards down here have their leopard like patterns and colours.
Ive added a pic of my tortoises that I took this morning. He spends the day outside in his pen , and inside , because of the numerouse predators that lurk in the dark here.ive also added a pic of my tortoises enclosure , just for interest sake.
This time of year , winter is ending, and its getting hot. I would also like to back up Toms belief of leopards needing humidity. In durban/capetown /and pretty much anywhere coastal in South Africa, its very humid. The only time it will ever become dry is in winter . Right now its actually so warm , you can prettymuch sleep outside naked