Tortoise on drive

On an afternoon game drive with the Webber family from Cape Town we came across this leopard tortoise walking along an elephant path.

We all jumped out the game viewer to have a closer look and on approaching him I was surprised to see that he wasn’t scared. 

Normally when you approach a tortoise they will try to hide by tucking their head and legs into their shell to protect themselves and make a hissing sound to deter the approaching threat or predator. 

This confident fellow however was not going to shy away. This boldness gave us the perfect opportunity to study him up close and determine the sex. 

We soon discovered that it was a male, you can tell this as the females have a flat shell underneath and males have a small depression on the underside of their shell, this allows the male to mount the female without rolling off her as would happen if he also had a flat shell. His braveness paid of as he was rewarded with a light head scratch from Debbie, which he really seemed to enjoy.

written by Andre d’Hotman