Geometric Tortoise

It has a very strong, black and yellow patterned carapace, used for defence against predators. The patterns are arranged in ray-like markings and help the tortoise blend in with its environment. From a birds eye view the shell has geometrical symbols on it thus giving it its name. This tortoise is very small, and a full grown tortoise can only reach about in diameter. The tortoise is one of the rarest species of tortoise of earth, only about 2,000 to 3,000 are alive today. However, because of its cryptic colouration and lack of activity, it makes it hard to create an accurate estimate of the population size. While it shares much of its superficial outer appearance with its relatives in the genus Psammobates, it can be distinguished by the distinctively brightly coloured yellow stars of its shell scutes, the small nuchal and single axillary, the lack of buttock tubercles, and the only slightly upturned rear margins of the shell.

They are said to aestivate in the months of June through September, or when their natural environment is not normal, or when in captivity. Little is known about their reproductive behaviour. When the female is ready to lay eggs, she digs a hole in the ground and covers it with grass or other vegetation. The geometric tortoise tends to feed during cooler parts of the morning and afternoon. They tend to be shy and seek shelter when they notice observers.

This species is one of the rarest land tortoises in the world, classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. Its habitat is under constant threat of destruction and fragmentation as a result of, frequent fires, increase in the predation rates, and an increase in vegetation not native to the region. Its environment is now reduced to thirty-one habitat fragments which include seven reserves. The conservation authority of Western Cape province has made the conservation of the geometric tortoise one of its highest priorities. The areas that are left survive primarily because they are in less optimal farming areas. Cape Nature Conservation is one of the four provincial nature preserves that the tortoises reside in. The tortoise is marked as a high priority for the nature preserve, so they continually monitor the population of the animals to track their conservation efforts. Cape Nature Conservation believes that tracking the population of a certain special is an early alert system to help determine which animals are more critical than others and helps determine what the animals thrive from and what hurts them. Observation of the population is the foundation to any conservation efforts made to help this species. The population is documented annually. These counts are taken by officials walking through the preserve and hand-counting the number of tortoises they see. Other conservation efforts are taking place in order to insure the survival of the species. These efforts include studying the types of food that the geometric tortoise eats in order to understand their environmental needs, and the problems with the non-native plant species. Public support for government run conservation efforts is very low, as a result private conservation efforts have become more prevalent as a way of supplementing the limited funding that the government has for conservation efforts. This is known as wildlife ranching, and it allows for large areas of land home to be preserved at minimal expense to the government. Predators of geometric tortoises include mammals such as baboons, jackals and genets. Ostriches, secretary birds, various hawks, crows, and storks are potential bird predators. Introduced mammals, such as dogs, cats, rats, mongooses, and swine, are also known or suspected predators of the tortoise.