REPTILIAN TUESDAY #12

REPTILIAN TUESDAY # 12

We hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween and enjoyed the pictures we posted on Facebook and all the tweets we posted about bats and owls! We’re excited to finish the week off with all kinds of wonderful animals and today we have a very flat one! Flat you say? Flat! Come meet….

MEET THE PANCAKE TORTOISE!

Range/Habitat: E Africa (Tanzania/Kenya)/rocky outcrops and savannas

Diet: Herbivore: grasses, leaves, fruit

Length/Weight: 5 ½”-7”/ 1 lb

Conservation Status: Vulnerable

Fun Facts:

• Pancake Tortoises have flat carapaces (top shell) that are flexible. This is a very unusual adaptation.
• Pancake tortoises can squeeze into narrow crevices. This helps protect them from predators.
• They don’t move to far from their shelter.
• Pancake tortoises are actually quick and agile climbers.
• They live in small colonies and share their shelters.
• They can live up to 25 years old.
• Pancake tortoises are crepuscular (most active at dusk and dawn).

Pancake tortoises are really neat little tortoises with their flat shells and ability to climb. And they have pancake in their name and who doesn’t love pancakes!