An additional afterthoughtfor conseration: if really concerned about the subspecies, which is commendable as it seems you do not wish to produce hybrids (a definite no-no in my book), I would suggest a DNA analysis of the animal. There are a couple of dedicated zoological veterinarians who maintain DNA profile data on all tortoise species and could probably identify the animal in question readily. One is Dr. Ed Louis who was at the Univ. of Nebraska when I last had contact with him. If you had your vet send him a blood sample, the mystery could be solved (and if he needs the sample to compare to others, the cost could be very minimal).

Ed has DNA tested my Indian Stars, Sri Lankan Stars, Burmese Stars, and also my Indian Travancore Tortoises (collected in India in 1958 by Dr. Walter Auffenberg). Just for the readers' info: Indian and Sri Lankan Stars had identical DNA (making them just different geographic races of the same species), Burmese Stars were quite different (almost as closely related to elongata as elegans as I recall), and the Indian Travancores were most definitely a different species than either elongata or forsteni (which are still mistakenly called Travancore Tortoises by many people despite the scientific article RE-separating the three types into diffent species by Peter Pritchard in February 2000 (Reptile & Amphibian Hobbyist Magazine pp.18-28)

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• Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardalis? - sned25271, Sun Sep 10 20:41:49 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardalis? - zovick, Sun Sep 10 21:52:36 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - simias, Mon Sep 11 10:38:38 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardalis? - Ivory Tortoise, Tue Sep 12 14:51:49 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - sned25271, Tue Sep 12 22:43:04 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - zovick, Wed Sep 13 06:49:22 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - sned25271, Wed Sep 13 17:10:09 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - zovick, Wed Sep 13 22:47:24 2006
• RE: Pardalis babcocki or Pardalis pardal - zovick, Wed Sep 13 07:08:58 2006