Those
of you who have visited Poppy certainly know about our tortoises and many of
you have also seen one or more baby tortoise – not to mention the baby-making
that goes on constantly (much worse than the rabbits) and involves much bumping
of shells and some ridiculous face-pulling and squeaking on the part of the
male (I know there is a joke here…)
But
during the heat of summer the babies – and even the larger tortoises – are
often hard to find. At this time, when
they need to soak up all the sun they can get, you can hardly walk in the
garden without treading on one. The
other day, I found these FOUR gathered together– for a baby tortoise
play-date?....
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| Baby tortoise gathering |
And
today I found the smallest one I think I have EVER seen…..
People
sometimes ask me questions about the tortoises and I can't always answer them so I have now done my homework and here is what I have learned….
They are
spur-thighed or ‘Greek tortoises’.
They lay up to about 6 eggs at time in a nest dug by the female, after
which she has nothing more to do with the nest or the young, which take about 10
weeks to hatch out.
Even
these little tortoises can apparently live well over a hundred years. So can you tell their age by counting
rings? Sometimes, but some rings rub off
while if the tortoise has plenty to eat all year round its shell may not
develop distinct rings as it grows.
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| Star Agama |
Here
is another little guy I saw while I was in the garden – again most of you have
seen these popping in and out of holes in the stone walls round the hotel. He is – apparently – a Star Agama and is
capable of changing colour – mainly lighter or darker. He is territorial – and sometimes one male
may have a ‘harem’. The head-bobbing
which I have noticed they often do when sitting on top of the wall, is
apparently a sign of aggression.
Unfortunately it isn’t enough to stop Poppy the lizard-eater. We rescue them whenever possible but she
sometimes gets herself a tasty snack.
Luckily, the article I have just read says they are not considered
endangered at all!
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| Poppy looking innocent - don't believe it! |
In
contrast, the loggerhead turtles which nest on the beach at Calis as well as at Iztuzu beach in Dalyan, are officially listed as endangered. There seem to
have been more sightings of them this year.
I have had several guests saying they virtually swam into one while
swimming in the lagoon at Oludeniz and others who saw them swimming just off
the beach at Calis. Early this summer, we
saw several swimming close to the beach late in the afternoon when there were
lots of swimmers around. I was surprised
that they would come that close to people.
I
have just been looking for any information about how many nests there have been
this year but couldn’t find any figures yet.
What I did find was a research paper that suggested that even with all
the efforts at conservation, the attempts to protect them (for example making
the boats add protective guards to their propellers) and the hospital and
rehabilitation centre at Iztuzu, the numbers are still thought to have declined
to around 25% of the level of 1995.
And don't forget, turtles and tortoises as a group have been around for more than 100 million years and shared the earth for some 40 million with the dinosaurs!
