Geochelone elegans
Indian
star tortoises are popular based on their size, personality and appearance.
Their care is similar to the leopard tortoise. With yellow lines radiating from
the center of each scute and contrasting with their black base color, star
tortoises are one of the world’s most attractive tortoise species. They also
are not territorial. Multiple males and females may be kept together without
the fighting, aggressive biting and ramming encountered during breeding by the
European species.
Indian star tortoises
are native to India, Sri Lanka and southeastern Pakistan. Although there are no
formally recognized subspecies, there are geographically separate variants. In
the United States herpkeepers typically identify Indian and Sri Lankan star
tortoises, but both are classified as Geochelone elegans.Carapace very convex,
dorsal shields often forming humps; lateral margins nearly vertical; posterior
margin somewhat expanded and strongly serrated; no nuchal; supracaudal
undivided, incurved in the male; shields strongly striated concentrically;
first vertebral longer than broad, the others broader than long, third at least
as broad as the corresponding costal. Plastron large, truncated or openly
notched in front, deeply notched, bifid behind; suture between the humerals
much longer than that between the femorals; suture between the pectorals very
short; axillary and inguinal rather small. Head moderate; forehead swollen,
convex, and covered with rather small and irregular shields; beak feebly
hooked, bi- or tricuspid; edge of jaws denticulated; alveolar ridge of upper
jaw strong. Outer-anterior face of fore limb with numerous unequal-sized,
large, imbricate, bony, pointed tubercles; heel with large, more or less
spur-like tubercles; a group of large conical or subconical tubercles on the
hinder side of the thigh. Carapace black, with yellow areolae from which yellow
streaks radiate; these streaks usually narrow and very numerous: plastron
likewise with black and yellow radiating streaks. The Indian star tortoise can
grow 10 inches long.
The patterning although highly contrasting is
disruptive and breaks the outline of the tortoise as it sits in the shade of
grass or vegetation. They are mostly herbivorous and feed on grasses, fallen
fruit, flowers and leaves of succulent plants, and will occasionally eat
carrion. In captivity however they should never be fed meat. The sexual
dimorphism of adult Indian star tortoises is quite apparent. Females are
considerably larger than their male counterparts. In addition, the females
plastron is much flatter than that of the males which has a concave shape.
The shape of this
creature is presumed to be specially adapted to naturally assist it to return
to a stable stance after it has been turned over. Mathematicians Gábor Domokos
of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and Péter Várkonyi of
Princeton University designed a homogenous object called Gömböc that has
exactly one unstable balance point and exactly one stable balance point. Just
as a bottom-weighted (non-homogenous weight distribution) sphere would always
return to the same upright position, they found it was possible to construct a
shape that behaves the same way. After that, they noted the similarity to the
Indian Star Turtle and subsequently tested 30 turtles by turning them upside
down. They found that many of them were self-righting.
More at; http://www.reptilechannel.com/care-sheets/star-tortoise.aspx
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