Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sri Lankans- supposedly pics will be up tommorrow. They're asking $28000. I can't wait to see them. Just thought you guys might want to know. Brooks

All these years without any now 2 in one day. Does the one listed for $100,000 look leucistic to anyone else?

I seen these also! However, if I had a truely investment quality herp ($100,000), I would invest in a better camera or photographer to take the shots.

That's pretty odd, isn't it, and the pictures are terrible. I sure wouldn't be bidding $100,000 based on those photos. Wonder what the ones tomorrow will look like?
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Sohni
Northern California

0.1 Baja de L.A. Rosy Boa
0.1 Okeetee Corn Snake
1.1 Rubber Boas
1.0 Leopard Gecko
0.0.1 Hermann's Tortoise
0.0.1 Marginated Tortoise
1.0 3 Toed Box Turtle (rescued)
plus my kids' herps:
0.1 California King Snake
1.0 Mexican Rosy Boa
0.1 Leopard Gecko

Well, I don't know what it is, but it is NOT an albino, be it a Star Tortoise or anything else. All true albinos have red eyes. This one has dark eyes. It doesn't have the body shape of a Star Tortoise either, though maybe that is because it is very young. I cannot tell the apparent age from the pictures. The tortoise itself looks to have the same body shape and coloration of what they were calling Testudo flavominimaralis a few years back. They were all the same color as the one in this photo (no black on the shells) with jet black eyes. Anyone remember those?

If you check out my website you can see a REAL albino mainland Indian star tortoise (http://turtletracker.com). Click on the albino and oddity gallery. I'll try to paste a picture into this post.

From what I'm told by a friend albino Indian stars are found every once in awhile in the wild. They have even been offered for sale in Thailand (weird eh?). I heard that most of them are gobbled up by Japanese collectors.

I agree that the eyes on the one in the classifieds don't appear red but it could just be a bad photo. VERY odd that another albino star pops up on the same day and this one just happens to be a Sri Lankan! Maybe it was posted by someone who wanted to buy the original animal posted but drive the price down from 100k to 28k? Hate to accuse anyone of that but it does seem unreal to see two in the same day. They say pics are coming later so we will see....
Best wishes,
Michael

Any reptile advocate worth his weight, would take the 28K-100K and return the thing to Sri Lankan. Making a business out of selling is not what I call natural.

If you are saying to return the albino to Sri Lanka then I wouldn't necessarily agree. Albinos don't do very well in the wild due to lack of camouflage. Using some of the funds of the sale for conservation of wild torts would be ideal!
Best wishes,
Michael

look like a star tortoise to me. But even if it is, and even if it IS an albino, anyone who would even THINK about paying 100K for it needs to have their head examined!

I'm starting to think we are all getting hosed!!! then again maybe somebody came up with the $$$$$.
CW