3rd largest tortoise in the world

NESTING & EGG LAYING IN A GROUP OF AFRICAN SULCATA TORTOISES (Geochelone Sulcata)

Story By: Jason Abels – Assistant Director www.tigerhomes.org Animal Sanctuary

Pictures of Egg Laying Sulcata Tortoises >>

The Sulcata Tortoise (Geochelone Sulcata) is the 3rd largest tortoise in the world and the www.tigerhomes.org Animal Sanctuary houses a breeding colony of them. For detailed information on our group please visit Meet the Rest Of the Family.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ANIMAL WEBCAMS
I wanted to write a brief, “Behind the Scenes,” segment on these remarkable African Tortoises for a while now. I was finally inspired to do so after observing a really cool site yesterday. I was walking around our large Sulcata Tortoise Habitat and noticed that two of our large mature female tortoises (Macy & Sahara) were laying eggs, at the same time, within a few feet of each other. I thought this was quite cool and ran inside to grab my digital camera (See attached Pictures of Egg Laying Sulcata Tortoises).  

Pictures of Egg Laying Sulcata Tortoises
Top: Macy the female African Sulcata Tortoise digging her nest and laying eggs. Bottom: Sahara, another Sanctuary Sulcata is seen laying eggs in her nest and in close proximity to Macy.  
The close proximity of the tortoise nests.  

Pictures of Tortoise Eggs from African Sulcata Tortoises

Left: Freshly dug/retrieved Sulcata Tortoise Eggs. Right: Carefully rinsed Tortoise eggs.
  

How To Determine the Sex of a Tortoise

Female Tortoise

Male Tortoise

CLICK HERE TO SEE ANIMAL WEBCAMS Many tortoises have Gular Scutes, some are more pronounced than others. With Sulcata's, these scutes are highly pronounced in males and keepers can easily use that feature to separate male from female. The sexes cannot be distinguished from each other when young. The scutes get bigger with age. Sex determination in Sulcata's is more a matter of size than age. Typically they have to be over 14 inches to notice the size of a male's Gular Scutes. You can also flip them over to examine their belly (PLASTRON). Males will have a concave plastron and a female will have a flat one. The purpose of the "Concave Plastron" is so the male tortoise can mount & mate the female without falling off :-) Most tortoises are SEXUALLY DIMORPH