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Home HERMANN’S TORTOISE TORTOISE WHO ARE YOU? Morphology T. h. hermanni and the others : pay attention to...
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T. h. hermanni and the others : pay attention to the confusion!

Balkans tortoise (T. hermanni boettgeri)
Features: trapezoidal carapace, black discontinuous or no bands, pale coloration, back black pattern less pronounced than in Testudo hermanni hermanni, pectoral suture scute below the femoral scute.
It originated, as its name indicates from the eastern part of the range of the Hermann’s tortoise.

Greek Tortoise (Testudo graeca)
Features: supra caudal scutes fused, horny tubercle on the intern side of the thigh, large scales on the anterior members and no horny spur at the end of the tail.
It is native to North Africa.

 

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Balkan and Greek Tortoises, two "exotic" tortoises in France

These two species are not native to France and should normally not be found in the wild in Corsica and the French mainland. But sometimes, because of releases of captive individuals, these exotic species are found in nature. 

Crosses with wild populations of Hermann’s Tortoise are possible, they contribute to the degradation of natural populations by generating hybrid individuals less adapted to the local conditions than native specimens.