A very beautiful, cute and endangered Tortoise
The Egyptian Tortoise
The Egyptian tortoise, Testudo kleinmanni (Lortet, 1883), the smallest member of the Mediterranean family of tortoises. It is as much an enigma and a mystery as the ancient land of Egypt where its natural history has unfolded. This little tortoise has carved its niche from ages before the ages of the Pharaohs and sphinxes, as part of the lasting legacy of 280 million years of chelonian history on the earth.
These beautiful animals are now extremely endangered in Egypt, as indeed, throughout its range. In Egypt proper, it may be that kleinmanni populations are in fact functionally extinct due to sparsity and fragmentation.
by instinct, this one knows classic kleinmanni drinking posture, tusche in the air kneeling to sip
A SPECIES DISAPPEARS FROM THE DESERTThe little Egyptian tortoise, Testudo kleinmanni, once ranged along the Mediterranean Sea Coast from Lybia, along ancient Cyrenaica, across Egypt into Southern Palestine. Hatchlings in captivity (like the one to the right and those below) are very likely its best hope for survival, as native populations along the Mediterranean coast have been devastated by human development, the sad practice of overgrazing in the areas where they live, and continued collection for the pet trade both by local folks as an adjunct to the shepherding economy and by the pet dealers of Cairo and Alexandria. This in spite of the fact that this little tortoise has been protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (C.I.T.E.S.) for years now.
The removal of these animals from the wild for the pet trade industry of the West took its most devastating toll in 1980's and early 1990's. Those animals exported during that time frame that lived to breed became the nucleus of captive bred groups that may well be the genome's best hope for survival. This fragile species is difficult to keep in captivity. It has a very narrow environmental tolerance, coming from the coastal desert strip of Egypt along the Mediterranean coast, and ranging no more than 120 km inland along the waterless wadis. Further, the species presents unique wild dietary needs of which we still know very little and which are frankly difficult to imitate or replicate in captivity.
More pictures and read more here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~fridjian/