Elisa the Marginated Tortoise

            Meet Elisa. Elisa is a female marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata) who lives in the southern hills of Germany. She is a namesake for a friend of mine who studied at the College in the Fall of 2017 and owns three marginated tortoises at her home in Feldkirchen, including this one. Elisa (the tortoise) has just woken up from her winter hibernation (which can last anywhere from late October to mid-March), and can be seen here munching on a bit of grass and weeds to catch up on her caloric intake. She is a vegetarian, and feasts upon clover, vegetable tops, dandelions, and other sorts of leafy greens. She is large for her sex, looking about a foot long here, leading me to believe she has lived happily in her German home to adulthood. Though marginated tortoises grow relatively quickly in their youth, their growth slows at about age 20, and they have been thought to live up to more than 100 years!

            Male marginated tortoises are generally larger than females, a trait that is uncommon among turtles and tortoises. One feature that may indicate her sex despite her size, then, is the curve of her skirt, or posterior sloping of her carapace. Both male and female marginated tortoises exhibit this trait, but it is more exaggerated in males than in females. Thus, the relative ease of curvature in Elisa’s shell suggests she is a she. Though this trait easily distinguishes Elisa as Testudo marginata, she is closely related to other Mediterranean tortoises, including T. hermanni (Hermann’s), T. graeca (Greek), T. horsfieldii (Russian) and T. kleinmanni (Egyptian). Though T. marginata is not known to hybridize much with these species in the wild, it has occasionally done so in captivity. Elisa and her kin naturally originate from southern Greece, but their range now includes the Balkans, Italy and northeastern Sardinia. The sloping hills of Feldkirchen are a perfect habitat for Elisa and her friends. They prefer mountainous regions, cold temperatures, and plenty of vegetation. With a thick shell, rough scales covering her stout legs, and dark coloration on her carapace to soak up the sun, Elisa easily tolerates cool to below-freezing temperatures.

            Testudo marginata is listed as a species of least concern according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. It is rather popular in the European pet trade owing to its hardy and friendly nature, and some can be found as pets in the United States. Elisa enjoys vast spaces to roam freely as a natural lawn mower and can be seen in the occasional tortoise huddle with her shelly friends. Though I have not personally met Elisa the tortoise, I have heard many a tale of her lazy living and curvaceous cuteness. One day soon I hope to visit and feed her a carrot top or two.