Tortoises Species

If you see a tortoise in this part of the world, it is almost sure to be an angulate tortoise. Its name probably comes from the (tri)angular pattern around its carapace (or ‘shell’). Their carapace colouring ranges from highly contrasting, like the one in the picture, to a yellowish brown with much less obvious markings. The female tortoise digs a hole to lay her single, round egg, which takes between 90 to 200 days to incubate, depending on the season.

Much less common, but still a 'local', is the parrot-beaked tortoise or common padloper. These smaller tortoises have a beak-shaped mouth and much rounder shell. They exhibit a big range of colouring variants across the Western Cape.