Common Name: Pancake Tortoise Scientific Name: Malacochersus tornieri
VULNERABLE Pancake Tortoise Distribution: Eastern Africa
The pancake tortoise has a characteristic flat shell, which can be easily depressed enabling it to fit into a range of nooks and crevices. The adults have a shell around 15 cm long and about 3 cm high. This shell may be various colours, usually tan and black, and may have dark radiating lines on the shell ‘star burst patterns’.
Habitat: Scrubland
Their light bone structure means they are more able to move quickly to escape danger than other tortoises and can right themselves from being on their back.
Height: 15cm
The pancake tortoise is found in south eastern Africa where it is found in southern Kenya and northern and eastern Tanzania. The species occupies scrub brush areas and rocky outcrops called kopjes.
Weight: ½kg Diet: Herbivorous
The tortoise eats grasses and other vegetation and some populations also eat seeds and nuts. Pancakes seem to get most of their water from the foods they eat, a survival trait in their natural environment. Pancake tortoises breed at the beginning of the year and nest in July or August. The successfully mated females lays her eggs singly and bury them in the sand. Multiple eggs are laid over the breeding season with one being lay every 6 weeks to 2 months. The incubation period runs for 4.5 – 6 months and the young tortoises once hatched are fully independent. Pancake tortoises live in colonies but these colonies are usually isolated from each other, sometimes simply separate rocky outcrops in a scrubland. Many individuals may share the same crevice quite happily. Males may fight during the breeding season in January and February.