Please help me identify the subspecies of our tortoise
 

I am new to this forum, but have been very active on the US tortoise forum.

I was wondering if you could help ID our Greek tortoise. He looks a lot like pictures I have found on British forums of "Tunisian" Greeks, which are small like he is, and skinny...

We rescued him last year from a woman who got him as a yearling at a reptile show in 2006 (she showed pics of him 'little' - he was tiny). At the time she said it was a "Tahitian" tortoise, which just plain doesn't exist. The closest thing I know of is a 'Tunisian' although he could be a very puny 'Antakyan, too. He hatched Summer 2005, is 14cm long (SCL) and weighs 476g. I know he is underweight, but he has actually gained 56g since coming into my care early November last year.

His old owner only fed him romaine and carrots - at least she sprinkled with calcium. In his previous home was kept in a 20gal aquarium on dry wood chips. His old owner also drilled a hole into his shell and put a ring through it - we removed this the second day he was with us. We also trimmed his beak, which was terribly long. Now he happily lives in a tortoise table we built him, with coco coir as substrate, proper lighting, and good dark leafy weeds to eat. He will spend a good portion of the Summer outside.

Here is the link to a blog post I wrote last year that has pics. I took those before taking out the ring in his shell or trimming his beak... I chose to post this link because it has good pics of his shell from above, the side, and the plastron. http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...se-rescue.html
Here is also a post with more recent pictures of him: http://tortaddiction.blogspot.com/20...2-minutes.html
(The glass you see is the front of the tort table we built him)

For the record, we love little Boo whatever subspecies he is. The nerd in me just wants to know. What do you think? Tunisian? Antakyan? Something else entirely?

He is what formerly was Testudo graeca antakyensis but is now Testudo graeca terrestris.

Danny

Thank you!
 

Thank you so much, Danny!
Since care for Greeks is virtually the same for all the subspecies, it doesn't make a huge difference, but the geek in me is satisfied. :)

This means this little guy is definitely on the small side for his species... he should be a lot bigger at 8 years old, right? Nothing we can do about that, except continue feeding him good HEALTHY greens... we've had him for almost 4 months now.

Danny, what were the characteristics that suggested T. g. antakyensis?

The 5th vertebral scute being wider than the 3rd vertebral scute. The carapace and plastron colour and pattern. The head and leg colour. The seam between the abdominal and femoral scutes is angled but not the acute angle you see in most North African Testudo graeca.

Danny