Subspecies of Adult Leopard Tortoises

[K.B13]

Is there anyway of telling if an adult leopard tortoise is p. pardalis or p. babcocki?
We rehabilitate leopard tortoises in South Africa and we've recently got a whole lot of hatchling and theres a mix of p. pardalis and p. babcocki so i wanted to find out which of our adults are which. There are pictures attached of our 7 rehabilitated tortoises, their ages range between 12 and 60.

 

[Grandpa Turtle 144]

Hi

 

[Yvonne G]

Whew! That's hard. I would venture to say that if they're full grown, and about 20lbs each, they're not SA. But ?????

 

[Tom]

There really is not a way to tell just looking at them. There are certain characteristics and traits associated with size, color and shape, but there is no way to know if they are mixes or not. Most of the ones over here are mixes of different types of leopards from all over the range.

 

[Stuart S.]

Hello and welcome!