What has happened to this Leopard.

[pagan queen]

I found this while looking for the answer to Eds question. It was spotted in the wild and apparently healthy.

[Merlin M]

Wow, at first I though it was in an egg till I looked closer!

[egyptiandan64]

It was probably caught above ground in a quick moving grassland fire Wendy.

Danny

[pagan queen]

Ah, well done Danny, that's what the information on the bottom said. Here it is.

"A very interesting sighting of one of the 'Little Five', the leopard tortoise. When we first spotted the white shell, we thought it was an old skeleton of an animal that had died. Upon closer investigation we realized it was still alive and very healthy, despite having lost most of its scutes. Freddy thinks this most likely occurred during the fires we had a few months ago."

Will it live a normal life or will it be compromised by it?

[egyptiandan64]

It will probably live a normal life. It will though take quite a while (almost 2 years) to replace all that lost bone, in which time he/she won't be doing any growing. So may not get as big as it would have had it not gotten caught in the fire.

Danny

[EJ]

At first I thought it was dead.

The only thing I can think of is a septic infection that it was able to fight.

I wouldn't think fire because there is no evidence of any external damage on the remaining scutes. Fire damage has a distinctive pattern. I'm not saying that it couldn't be fire damage but I don't think so.

Was there any information that went with the photo... that is really strange but you can see where the sutures of the bone doesn not match the borders of the scutes and you can also see how the scutes are seperate of the bone.

Eventually... new keritin will develop under the dead bone and it will slough off... leaving one ugly tortoise.

Originally Posted by pagan queen

I found this while looking for the answer to Eds question. It was spotted in the wild and apparently healthy.

[pagan queen]

Ed I posted the info that came with the picture in post #4. You must have been posting at the same time.

[EJ]

I did see that. When I answer a post I try not to read the post so what I say is not influenced... one of my many quirks.

Originally Posted by pagan queen

Ed I posted the info that came with the picture in post #4. You must have been posting at the same time.

[pagan queen]

I did think it looked too clean to have been burned that's why I asked. I would have thought it would show some signs of blackening from the fire. But I don't know about these things.

[pagan queen]

Here's a fire damaged tort.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/4457244...ream/lightbox/