Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Boss (my wife) I travelled about 6 hours (one way) to a large East coast zoo this past weekend. They had an interesting variety of tortoises on display with some notable holes.
There were no sulcatas or Leopard Tortoises. No Galapagos Tortoises although they did have a herd of Aldabarans on display which charged out of their "greenhouse" (once the plastic doorway cover was removed) to get at the cherries that had fallen from trees in their enclosure.
There were Star and Radiated Tortoises on display, and these little guys. I had never heard of Forsten's Tortoises. Do they exist in the pet trade under some other "common name" or are they just a small, little known species that doesn't get much press?
Karl H. Betz
Buzztail1(at)hotmail.com

While at this zoo, we noticed that almost every single tortoise enclosure had a plate with green leafy vegetable, tomatos, peppers, squashes AND MAZURI.
This, although not actually a tortoise for those of you who pick vigorously at nits, is an exceptionally colored Eastern Box Turtle with an excellent example of the sort of food dish which we saw.
It seems that this zoo, at least, is maintaining its animals with a balanced diet which includes some Mazuri, much like we do.
Just an observation that I thought I'd share.
Hope it doesn't get censored.
Karl H. Betz
Buzztail1(at)hotmail.com

Sorry, folks. I seem to have left the impression that I am interested in getting some Forsten's Tortoises.
Nothing could be further from the truth!
I had just seen a tortoise that was new to me and was asking if it was new to everyone or have I just missed noticing it.
Thanks to everyone who responded.
Karl H. Betz
Buzztail1(at)hotmail.com

I don't know what zoo you are talking about, but I have been to the San Diego and the Los Angeles zoo many times and I NEVER saw them feed anything to the tortoises but fruits and vegies. I've never seen a speck of mazuri, and I've watched the keepers feed many times.

We used to watch them feed the torts at the San Diego Zoo, too.
I was pretty happy when I realized that my tortoise enclosure (for my sulcatas) is bigger than theirs.
You don't seriously think that those are the only two zoos in the country that know what they are doing, do you?
We try to visit zoos wherever we go and have found that if you visit any one of three zoos, they will take care of some of their animals differently than the other two.
For instance, at the National Zoo (in DC), they let the Golden Lion Tamarins range free through a forested part of the zoo, just as they do at the Singapore Zoo. But at the North Carolina Zoo and the Atlanta Zoo, they keep them in relatively small cages.
Equally, some zoos feed their tortoises Mazuri as a supplement (in addition to) their "normal" diet of leafy greens and browse and some zoos don't.
Just my own personal observations.
We thought it was kind of neat to see a zoo feeding their tortoises the same way we feed ours.
Karl H. Betz
Buzztail1(at)hotmail.com

you're obviously not in 'the loop'.
ed

is that a box turtle?
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John Henry

Forsten's Tortoises are usually referred to as ecactly that. I have also seen them called yellow-head tortoises. Sometime they are mistaken to be elongated tortoises or vice-versa. They are sometimes advertised as Travancore Tortoises. True Travancore Tortoises are VERY rare and sellers advertising these as such usually are totally misinformed. Sometimes they will be called Sulawesi Tortoises. The most common name however is Forsten's. They are also sometimes called Celebes LAnd Tortoise and have been advertised as such fairly recently on Kingsnake with this name. Confused yet?

I had 4 of them when I first re-started my tortoise gathering in earnest. They were sold to me as Forsten's Tortoises. I believed this judgement and then I traded them to a local keeper and he swears up and down that they were and are Elongated tortoises. I still disagree with him, but just know that there are some confusing markings between the three species of tortoise.

Here is the best link on the subject I can find. There are identifying photos included.

http://www.chelonia.org/Articles/Iforsteniicare.htm

Tortuga
Link

The Forsten's tortoise is Indotestudo forsteni and is sometimes called the Celebes Island tortoise I believe.
It is part of the Indotestudo elongata, I. travancore and I. forsteni complex. They are probably the most frequently offered of the three as wild caught imports. Indotestudo travancore are virtually NEVER available anymore (despite the guy in the K.Snake Classifieds offering a forsteni as a true travancore!)
Once established, or (preferably) as captive hatched they are very nice tortoises. They tend to have more black blotches on the carapace than I.elongata but are otherwise fairly similar.
They have many of the same requirements as redfoot tortoises but are often far more shy and retiring.