Tortoises and turtles

[Aramar]

Hello!

I think that the Galapagos and the Aldabra tortoises in the game are quite similar regarding their needs and I usually end up creating identical habitats for them (although they are from different continents).

Therefore, I'd like to have some other species which are more different. Maybe the desert tortoise from the Mojave desert or the African spurred tortoise. These species would need more arid habitats which would look different than the tropical ones.

Other possible would be adding fresh water turtles although they don't dive. They could be sunbathing on the rocks and just go swimming on shallow water. That would also allow us to create different habitats, since we would have to include water.

I'm not an expert at all on tortoises/turtles, so maybe you have better suggestions. What do you think?

 

[jcp011c]

I'd like to see the leopard tortoise but I"m not sure if it's big enough to be in a habitat. Same for the common snapping turtle, alligator snapping turtle and african spurred tortoise. The various sea turtles would certainly be big enough but I don't know if they'll include them as they'd likely need more swimming actions. Beyond those, I think all the others would have to be exhibit animals for sure.

 

[markun]

There are quite a few larger tortoises they could have chosen. I would definitely have gone for the African spurred tortoise in the base game lineup. I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to have two giant tortoise species.

 

[NZFanatic]

I'd like to see the leopard tortoise but I"m not sure if it's big enough to be in a habitat. Same for the common snapping turtle, alligator snapping turtle and african spurred tortoise. The various sea turtles would certainly be big enough but I don't know if they'll include them as they'd likely need more swimming actions. Beyond those, I think all the others would have to be exhibit animals for sure.

Leopard tortoises are absolutely big enough for habitats.

 

[Firestar97]

I would absolutely love the African Spurred Tortoise. Snapping Turtles would be also great. I would also like small Turtles but they would most likely be Exhibit Animals even though it would be awesome to have them in the same Enclosure as Tapirs or in a small Pond. The Leopard Tortoise does also look great. The Indian star tortoise is also absolutely beautiful. Even though Hermann's tortoise is commonly kept as a Pet we could maybe also get them (but it wouldn't be as amazing as the other ones) and they are also endangered

 

[Cynogale bennettii II]

In my opinion, African spurred tortoise should have been one of the base game tortoises - certainly here in Europe they are by far and away the most commonly kept large tortoise species.

Some other larger tortoises species that can be kept in larger, outdoor exhibits (certainly from what I have seen in the UK) are the Madagascan radiated tortoise, the Southeast Asian elongated and brown forest tortoises, African leopard tortoise and South American red-footed and yellow-footed tortoises. Another option could be the Bolson tortoise, which is the largest species of North American tortoise. Several of those (the radiated, elongated, brown forest and Bolson) are critically endangered in the wild.

Among aquatic turtles that could work, there are some very large softshell turtles (like the Nile, Ganges and Cantor's giant) and the alligator snapping turtle. Again, these can be kept in quite large enclosures - in the case of the alligator snapping turtle I have seen pictures of at least one outdoor enclosure for the species in Europe as well.