Kleinmann's tortoise

Kleinmann's tortoise (Testudo kleinmanni), also called commonly the Egyptian tortoise, Leith's tortoise, and the Negev tortoise, is a critically endangered species of neck-hiding tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is native to Egypt and Libya. The species was once more widespread, but its numbers are now dwindling. The species is nearly extinct in Egypt, and complete extinction in the wild is a looming threat unless more actions are taken to protect this species.

Kleinmann's tortoise
Five-year-old specimen of Kleinmann's tortoise
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Testudines
Suborder: Cryptodira
Superfamily: Testudinoidea
Family: Testudinidae
Genus: Testudo
Species:
T. kleinmanni
Binomial name
Testudo kleinmanni
Lortet, 1883
Range map of the Egyptian tortoise; red color indicates remaining range, and black indicates extinct range
Synonyms[1]
  • Testudo leithii
    Günther, 1869
  • Peltastes leithii
    — Gray, 1870
  • Testudo kleinmanni
    Lortet, 1883
  • Medaestia leithi [sic]
    Wussow, 1916 (ex errore)
  • Testudo leithi
    — M.A. Smith, 1931
  • Pseudotestudo kleinmanni
    — Adler, 1958
  • Psuedotestudo kleinmanni
    — Highfield & Martin, 1989
  • Testudo kleinmanii [sic]
    Gerlach, 2001 (ex errore)
  • Testudo werneri
    Perälä, 2001

Etymology

The specific name, kleinmanni, is in honor of Edouard Kleinmann, a French stockbroker who collected the holotype in 1875.[2]

The specific name, werneri (of the synonym Testudo werneri), is in honor of Israeli herpetologist Yehudah L. Werner.[2]

Description
Belly of the Egyptian tortoise

Kleinmann's tortoise is the smallest tortoise in the Northern Hemisphere.[3] Female tortoises are larger than the males; males are more slender and have a longer tail.

The plastron has a high dome, and ranges in color from ivory to pale gold to dark brown to pink or dull yellow. This colouring strongly follows Gloger's rule, as it helps to regulate the impact of sunlight. This allows the paler tortoise to stay in the desert heat for longer. It is also an effective camouflage in the desert. The carapace is light yellow, often with two dark triangles on each abdominal scute. The tortoise's scutes have dark edgings that fade with age.

The head and limbs are a very pale ivory-yellow to yellowish-brown colour.

Systematics

The proposed subgenus Pseudotestudo is invalid, based on immature characters.[4] It has been proposed to unite this species with the marginated tortoise in the genus Chersus. These clearly share a common ancestor with the common tortoise (Greek tortoise). The former two are somewhat more similar to each other than to the Greek tortoise regarding DNA sequence data.[5] Considering biogeography, however, this is either due to (rather unlikely) dispersal across the Mediterranean, or the supposed "clade" is invalid and the similarity due to convergent evolution.

Negev tortoise

The Negev subpopulation had been separated as a distinct species, "Negev tortoise" (Testudo werneri), as it did not appear to have distinct or strongly reduced haplotype diversity, consistent with the recent extinction of the Egyptian population and slow DNA sequence evolution rates in Testudo.[6] Baha el Din (2006) synonymized T. werneri due to lacking mtDNA differences between T. kleinmanni from western Libya compared to tortoises from the Negev Desert.[1] In the 2017 checklist of turtles of the world, it remained a synonym.[7]

  • Characteristic specimens of the Egyptian tortoise (left) and Negev tortoise (right), dorsal view
  • Ventral view: Differences are slight and unreliable (see above)

Habitat and Ecology

Kleinmann's tortoise lives in deserts and semiarid habitats, usually with compact sand and gravel plains, scattered rocks, shallow, sandy wadis, dry woodlands, shrubby areas, and coastal salt marsh habitats. In captivity, it eats grasses, fruits, and vegetables, but the diet of T. kleinmanni in the wild is unknown.

It is least active when the weather is very cold or very hot. During the colder months, it is out most during midday. During the warm season, it is active in the mornings and evenings. The rest of the day is spent under bushes or in rodent burrows.

Reproduction

Kleinmann's tortoise becomes sexually mature when about 5 years old. In the wild, mating has only been observed in March, but in captivity, it mates in April and August to November. During courtship, the male will ram the female, sometimes chasing after her. Unlike any other Mediterranean tortoise, T. kleinmanni may make a mating call similar to the call of the mourning dove. Eggs are laid in shallow bowls beneath bushes, or in vacant burrows. Each clutch contains one to five eggs, which hatch in the summer or early autumn.

Status and conservation

Once found in Egypt and Libya, the habitat of T. kleinmanni in Egypt has been all but destroyed, and the Egyptian tortoise is close to complete extinction there. Two populations can still be found in Libya, but much of the coastline habitat has been destroyed because of human activity. Habitat loss and the illegal pet trade are huge issues facing the species; it is also hunted locally for use in folk medicine.[8] The population is still on the decline, and the risk of extinction in the wild is very real if habitat degradation and illegal trade continue at their present rate.

On the IUCN Redlist, Kleinmann's tortoise is classified as CR A2abcd+3d. Less than three Testudo generations ago, an estimated 55-56,000 adult Kleinmann's tortoises existed. Today, about 7,500 remain, and decline due to habitat destruction and unsustainable exploitation appears to be ongoing. While the former threat is believed to be alleviated, illegal pet trade is feared to have reduced the population to maybe 1,000 adult tortoises in the two or three remaining subpopulations. Given that T. kleinmanni is a slow-maturing, long-lived species with few offspring (see K-strategist), This is well possibly less than the minimum viable population, eventually dooming the species to extinction in the wild.[4]

Mixing individuals from the subpopulations for reintroduction purposes should be avoided, as the ecological parameters of habitat differ.[9] DNA fingerprinting of individuals to help maintain heterozygosity in captive and reintroduction populations can be performed during routine stool analyses. In this context, notably, there may be a haplotype uniquely found in the Egyptian tortoise.[10]

Captive breeding requires more care than in other Testudo species, as the species is more delicate and the clutch is very small, but is not highly difficult for experienced Testudo breeders. T. kleinmanni is not generally available for hobbyists and even if legal to keep, should be avoided without valid documentation. Smuggling continues to be a problem, but confiscated individuals are used to establish a captive safeguard population.

On May 21, 2007, Rome's main zoo, Bioparco, reported it has successfully bred the species from parents rescued from a smuggler's suitcase in 2005.[11] It is also kept and bred at several other zoos in Europe and North America.

  • Intercepted shipment of Kleinmann's tortoise from Libya for the illegal pet market, port of Genoa, 2005.
  • T. kleinmanni now in Bioparco: Smuggling conditions are typically worse.
  • T. kleinmanni from Libya.
  • Kleinmann's tortoise, carapace fractured during smuggling.

References
  1. Fritz, Uwe; Havaš, Peter (2007). "Checklist of Chelonians of the World" (PDF). Vertebrate Zoology. 57 (2): 302. ISSN 1864-5755. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  2. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. (Testudo kleinmanni, p. 143; T. werneri, p. 282).
  3. "Egyptian tortoises". Bristol Zoo.
  4. Perälä (2003)
  5. van der Kuyl et al. (2002), Fritz et al. (2005)
  6. van der Kuyl (2002)
  7. Rhodin, Anders G.J.; Inverson, John B.; Roger, Bour; Fritz, Uwe; Georges, Arthur; Shaffer, H. Bradley; van Dijk, Peter Paul (August 3, 2017). "Turtles of the world, 2017 update: Annotated checklist and atlas of taxonomy, synonymy, distribution, and conservation status(8th Ed.)" (PDF). Chelonian Research Monographs. 7. ISBN 978-1-5323-5026-9. Retrieved October 4, 2019.
  8. da Nóbrega Alves et al. (2008)
  9. See Perälä (2001) and above for identification
  10. Široký & Fritz (2007)
  11. "Day in photos 23/05". The New Zealand Herald. 23 May 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2011.

Further reading
  • Lortet L (1883). "Études zoologiques sur la faune du Lac de Tibériade. I. Poissons et reptiles du Lac de Tibériade et de quelques autres parties de la Syrie". Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Lyon 3: 99–194. (Testudo kleinmanni, new species, pp. 188–189). (in French).
  • Perälä, Jarmo (2001). "A New Species of Testudo (Testudines: Testudinidae) from the Middle East, with Implications for Conservation". Journal of Herpetology. 35 (4): 567–582. doi:10.2307/1565894. (Testudo werneri, new species).
  • Perälä, Jarmo (2003). "Testudo marginata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2003. Retrieved 12 May 2006.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) Listed as Critically Endangered (CR A2abcd+3d v3.1).
  • Nóbrega Alves, Rômulo Romeu da; Silva Vieira, Washington Luiz da; Gomes Santana, Gindomar (2008). "Reptiles used in traditional folk medicine: conservation implications". Biodiversity and Conservation. 17 (8): 2037–2049. doi:10.1007/s10531-007-9305-0.
  • Široký, Pavel; Fritz, Uwe (2007). "Is Testudo werneri a distinct species?". Biologia. 62 (2): 228–231. doi:10.2478/s11756-007-0036-1.
  • van der Kuyl, Antoinette C.; Ballasina, Donato L. Ph.; Dekker, John T.; Maas, Jolanda; Willemsen, Ronald E.; Goudsmit, Jaap (2002). "Phylogenetic Relationships among the Species of the Genus Testudo (Testudines: Testudinidae) Inferred from Mitochondrial 12S rRNA Gene Sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 22 (2): 174–183. doi:10.1006/mpev.2001.1052. PMID 11820839.
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