The Egyptian Tortoise, Testudo kleinmanni Lortet, 1883

The Egyptian Tortoise, Testudo kleinmanni Lortet, 1883 is the smallest of the Mediterranean species of Testudo and the world’s second smallest tortoise species living today. Native to North Africa and Israel, it is adapted to surviving under the extreme climatic conditions of semideserts. In spite of conservation measures and captive breeding programmes, the Egyptian Tortoise is acutely threatened by extinction. Even though maintaining it in human care is thought of as a challenge, it has been gaining popularity amongst dedicated terrarium keepers in recent years. Information on its complex husbandry requirements has so far been scant and tedious to trace. The present book by Franziska Biedenweg and Dipl.-Biol. Ricarda Schramm fills this gap in that it is the first to provide comprehensive and detailed data on the fascinating little beauty known as Testudo kleinmanni. The authors discuss all relevant subjects, including the distribution and ecology of this species in the wild, how the latter translates into keeping and feeding it properly in captivity, what is required for propagating it successfully, and how to best employ modern technology to achieve these goals. An exhaustive list of the existing literature and numerous colour photographs and graphics illustrate the individual chapters. The author’s years of experience with keeping this species are summarized in an annual care schedule that will provide guidelines to the month-to-month keeping of this species. A loose copy of this schedule is added to the book for ease of reference.