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Speckled Padloper Tortoise — printable fact sheet
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Speckled Padloper Tortoise
Homopus signatus
The speckled padloper (Chersobius signatus) of Namaqualand and the western Cape is the smallest tortoise in the world: males mature at around 6 to 8 centimetres and adults weigh roughly 95 to 165 grams, small enough to sit in a matchbox. Everything about it is fitted to granite.…
Did you know?
- Despite its tiny size, the Speckled Padloper Tortoise can climb steep, rocky surfaces with surprising agility.
- An adult speckled padloper can weigh less than a chicken egg. "Padloper" is Afrikaans for "path walker". Its shell is flatter and more flexible than a typical tortoise's, an adaptation for jamming itself into rock cracks rather than for armour. It lays only one egg at a time, which is exceptional even among small tortoises and makes the species very slow to recover from collection.
What I learned
Draw the speckled padloper tortoise
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