Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Has anyone noticed the picture of the what I believe to be a Bowsprit tortoise in the T and T for Dummies book? It said it was from Madagascar and was being breed in captivity with growing frequency? I might be mistaken but I've never seen C.B. Bowsprit torts before. So my question is, if you've seen the picture am I correct that it's a bowsprit tortoise and have any been breed in captivity and offered for sale? I do know their not from Madagascar!
Thanks,
Chad

Yes it is a Bowsprit. You are correct they don't come from Madagascar, they come from South Africa. Unfortunately as good as Liz's book for “dummies” is there is a lot of "incorrect" info in the book. I have been searching for Bowsprits for over 20, out of my 33 years of tortoise keeping, and have never found any available. I met a fellow in the early ‘80s who had 6 of them and have never seen another one since.

Daytona Expo last year. I think a German guy had them.
I don't know if they were 'legal' (I doubt it)but I saw at least 10 of them.

Did you happen to ask what they were going for? Not that many people seem have any info on them. That's why I figured I'd ask on the this forum. My guess is they wouldn't do well in Florida anyway!!
Chad

Are you thinking it was George Ulman of Turtle World? George is from Germany accent and I talked with him a number of times and he had no Bowsprits. I went through each booth and no one I ran across had any Bowsprits. If any body had them either Darrell Senneke or Glen Jacobson of the WCT would have told me about it.

It was a a Czech guy and it was more like 2 or 3 years ago. He had some really nice 'farm raised' Chersina for 350 to 400 each but he didn't have any females.
There are a few dealers in Fla that get them on occasion but, again, they run about $500 each
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Have you heard how well they do in captivity?

but I have trouble paying for a tortoise that is even considered a problem in SA considering they are so common. People 'save' them and turn them in to rehab centers because they are vey strict about re release. So, there is a glut of the animals in captivity and they will not allow them to be exported. Also, because they are relatively common they are not a species of special concern so they are in a kind of limbo.
I guess we'll just have to wait until the species looses enough habitat to cause a decline in the population so we can see more on the market.
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Ed
Tortoise_Keepers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Trying to keep the fun in Chelonian care

Actually, Chersine are not the easiest tortoises to keep in captivity. I lost a group of several animals a few years back that had severe internal nematode loads. Couple that with the fact that acclimating these animals to the typically higher humidity conditions of most of the US can be problematical, and you have the potential for disaster. If you are lucky enough to find an acclimated animal however, they can do very well in captivity.
These animals are CITES II, and animals coming out of South Africa are very rare. There have been some breeding successes in Europe from what I understand, though.

I have not seen the book personally, but there is a "Madagascan" angulated tortoise which is referred to once in a while as the bowsprit tortoise. These are actually some of the rarest tortoises in the world(CITES I), though quite different in appearance from the SA bowsprit tortoise.