The tortoises are awake! Spring is here!
This is Broccoli and Hibsicus, a brother-and-sister team of 6-year-old California Desert Tortoises. The California Desert Tortoise is an endangered species, and these two are registered into our protective custody by the Department of Fish and Game. The tortoises can not be purchased - we aquired these as hatchlings for my daughter's 9th birthday from another registered custodian.
We are only guessing at the sex of the pair, as they are still too young to be certain... but Broccoli is developing the concave plastron that is the sure-fire tip-off of being male. He's also an asshole and takes all the food, so we hypothesized his XY nature long before his plastron began to change.
Desert Tortoises hibernate during the colder months, and it's always a special day for me when they wake up and start their endless foraging, digging, and exploring. Though they aren't the most exciting pets to own, they are beautiful in an ancient and mythical way, and they do have distinct personalities. Surprisingly, they are also quite social and become noticably excited when they spot a human bearing fruit.
We can't pet them, or sleep with them, or play with them... they don't run to greet us at the door or give slobbery kisses... they're not excited at all by the laser pointer... and it's a constant battle trying to keep them out of the dogs' mouths.
I love them anyway. I can't help it. It's like having dinosaurs in the backyard.
8 comments:
The one on the right is kind of cute, in a turtle sort of way.
Do they live in a pen or are they allowed to wander around?
The one on the right is Hibiscus, the female. She is very cute, in a tortoise kind of way (turtles are amphibians, tortoises are reptiles). You can see on her right side (left in the picture) that she survived a dog attack with some significant damage to her carapace.
They are still to small to have the run of the yard, not to mention that tortoises DIG like crazy and would be gone in a day if they were out. Plus, they would be fair game for the dogs if they were just cruising around the yard. I lost a Mediterranean Tortoise last year because of two dog attacks (I saved her from the first one by epoxying her poor destroyed plastron) and because he was a reptile too stupid to stay where I put him.
They have a pen in the backyard and I am going to build them a bigger one this summer.
Hooray for Los Tortugas!!!
We had a Russian tortoise for a few years called Aesop, he was an interesting little guy who move then once gave us the slip in the backyard while we were out enjoying the sun.
Once, we almost duck taped a suction cup with a flag attached, to his shell (because the suction cup wouldn't stick on it's own) but the hot pink and yellow of the flag clashed with his shell, so we just followed him around everywhere he went.
I don't know why I felt the need to share that, as he wasn't part of a threatened species in any way, and the story was kinda lame, but there it is none the less.
:-D
I thought they were both reptiles? Shows what I know about tortoises. :)
We have tons of turtles here. They swim around the pond, get up on little logs, poke their little heads out, stretch their little legs in the sun. They're so damn cute! Most people around here just shoot them though. They screw with the fish population. Oh and we hit a lot of them with our cars. They aren't very fast you know. They're sooo slowww. Maybe if we got some of those flags from Jen and glued them to their backs the cars would see them. Oh and get this we have these turtle crossing signs all over the place. Yeah, like anyone is going to slow down for a turtle, only if it gave them a better shot with their gun. hee hee.
Don't get upset, I'm just joking with ya ;) I mean everything I said was true, bringing it up at this time is the joking part :p
Sorry :( *clicks the mouse and runs out the room before daughter finds her gun*
Nice photo. The photo makes them seem much larger than they are.
RT:
In British English it is normal to describe these reptiles as turtles, terrapins, or tortoises, depending on whether they live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land.
In American English it is common to call them "turtles" regardless of habitat, although "tortoise" is used as a more precise term for the land-dwelling species. Ocean-going species are sea turtles. "Terrapin" is reserved for the diamondback terrapin, Malaclemys terrapin, a North American species whose name is derived from the Algonquian word for this animal [6].
Speakers of Australian English tend to use turtle for both marine and freshwater species and tortoise for the terrestrial species.
The word chelonian is increasingly popular among veterinarians, scientists, and conservationists working with these animals. It is based on the Greek word χελóνα( /çeˈlona/, chelone), meaning tortoise.
You're not wrong, RT, they are both reptiles. I was just trying to distinguish between the amphibian turtles and the land-dwelling tortoises.
:-)
As for the rest... well...
Jen: What happened to Aesop?
Tom: Thanks! Yes, they still have a lot of growing to do!!
We sold him to a local guy who raises tortoises.
I wanted him to have friends. And where we were living I couldn't build an outside pen for him, but the guy had a whole set-up.
When he comes up in conversation we say "He went to a better place."
:)
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