Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Last year my wife and I attended the Tinley park reptile show in oct and while we were their we picked up a baby Leopard tortiose, we were told that we would not be able to tell its sex until in matures so we got it set up and we named it buddy. We currently own 26 snakes, a 200 rats, 10 mice, and this is our fist tortoise, and it is by far my wife's favorite pet and she really wants to get another one and her birthday is coming up, but I have been looking around and I noticed that there are two different types of Leopard Tortoises, and I recall when was at the show that there was the Leopard tortoise and the south African leopard tortoise, which I was told the south African leopard tortoise is the one that gets huge and the other one caps out between 18-26 inches and normally maxes out around 50 pds. Now that I am considering another tortoise, I want to make sure that I know what type I have so how can I tell the difference between the two. Also some day I think it would be great to be able to breed this animals someday and I was wondering where can I find more information on them. I have read some websites that say that it takes 15 years to reach maturity but then I read the post below where someone had a 6 year old lay eggs. I just want to understand these guys a little more before I go picking up another, so if you have any recommendable resources I would appreciate it.

Thanks for any advice you can offer,
Matt

I have bred leopard tortoises every year for the past 32 years and have been to Africa to see them in person (I am going to Ethiopia next year to see and photograph the really giant leopard tortoises). I wrote an excellent book on the care and breeding of Leopard tortoises but am not allowed to plug it on this forum.

There are currently two subspecies of leopard tortoises; however most authorities no longer recognize them. They are Stigmochelys pardalis pardalis and Stigmochelys pardalis babcocki. The S. p. pardalis is found in certain parts of South Africa and S. p. babcocki is found everywhere else. S. p. pardalis can be identified as a hatchling because it has two spots on the central scutes. S. p. babcocki has only one or no spots on the central scutes. S. p. pardalis usually has a more speckled skin than does S. p. babcocki.

In the USA the larger of the two subspecies is S. p. pardalis and it grows from 16 to 24 inches. The S. p. babcocki in the USA grow from 13 to 19 inches, however there are S. p. babcocki from Somalia and Ethiopia, which are reported to get to 26 to 32 inches with an unconfirmed report of a 38-inch tortoise (I kind of doubt it). Unfortunately none of the giant S. p. babcocki has ever made it into the USA and now USDA regulations ban the importation of any leopard tortoises “period”.

You are correct that hatchling leopard tortoise cannot be accurately sexed. They need to be two or three years old (sometimes older). At six inches you can start making a pretty good guess on the sex.

Good luck,

Richard Fife
richardfife@q.com