Radiata2014(1)e

Ron Scheffel Fig. 46.

Ron Scheffel Fig. 46. Signs of an oviposition event being imminent: The female will change her behaviour notably by now burying herself headfirst in the moist bottom substrate of the oviposition mound, spending several nights like this prior to laying eggs. The days are spent excavating test pits and clearly displaying dominance towards other specimens. active even before the lights come on, running about in an agitated manner. As soon as the lights come on, the female will typically rush to the oviposition mound for a brief basking session. She will then start sniffing the sand in a conspicuous manner and, if satisfied with the analysis, use her powerful front legs with their armour of thick scales to excavate a pit to a certain depth. Once she has achieved this, she will turn around and continue the earthworks with her hind legs. This process may take an hour or longer. Some individual females appear to have distinct perfectionist ambitions with regard to the quality of their nest pit that will make them give up on a half-dug pit again and again and start over with a new one just 10 cm apart. A clutch from a female Testudo kleinmanni typically comprises 1–3 eggs that are large relative to the size of the mother animal. Exceptions confirm the rule here as well, though, and clutches of four eggs are not really rare; I recorded several of those over the past years. Although it remains a mystery how and where the animals find the space to carry them, it is certainly possible somehow. The year of 2012 brought me a major loss in that a female died of egg-binding. Even the most intensive care under veterinarian guidance (for a whole week) failed to produce the desired result in the end. The animal was carrying four large shelled eggs, with the first egg apparently being too large for the female to pass in a natural manner. She excavated nest pits, but then was unable to deposit her eggs. On the day that had been scheduled for surgical intervention, the animal died of acute cardiovascular arrest in the care of an experienced lady reptile-veterinarian. The veterinarian and I then decided to at least try and save the eggs the deceased mother animal had been carrying. The vet used the opportunity to examine the inner reproductive organs more closely and then told me that the animal had already formed five mature follicles. This tortoise might therefore have produced a clutch of five eggs next. For the record, I had this result certified 28 RADIATA 23 (1), 2014

Testudo kleinmanni, the Egyptian Tortoise – small yet demanding Oviposition process Fig. 47. As soon as the lights come on in the terrarium, due females will agitatedly look for a suitable oviposition spot. Fig. 48. Female Testudo kleinmanni are choosy and will not go for the first spot available for depositing their eggs. Fig. 49. The nest pit is first excavated with the front legs. Fig. 50. In between, the female will turn around again and again to see whether digging becomes easier by using the hind legs. Fig. 51. Clearly visible here is the widened gap between the dorsal and the ventral parts of the shell (facilitated by the mobile posterior portion of the plastron) that permits the eggs to pass through without damage. Fig. 52. Once the nest pit has been dug to a certain depth, it is completed with the hind legs. RADIATA 23 (1), 2014 29