Hermann's Tortoise

Looks how to spot one

Domed shell with scutes; scaly limbs

A compact, high-domed land tortoise. Its signature features are a hard, horn-tipped spike at the end of the tail and a supracaudal scute (the shell plate above the tail) that is usually split into two. Males have noticeably longer, thicker tails than females. Western animals tend to have a slim, smoothly shaped head, while eastern animals have a shorter, rounder head.134

Personality what they are like

An alert, curious tortoise that spends its day basking, browsing on plants and exploring its pen. Males are the busier sex, patrolling their space and chasing females in spring, and they can be pushy with each other. Females are generally calmer. Wild individuals are often found by listening for the rustle they make moving through leaf litter.783

Daily activity how busy a day looks

Active by day, especially in the cooler morning and late afternoon, with a quieter spell in midsummer heat. Needs room to walk, graze and dig, so a large, varied outdoor area in warm months suits it best; small pens and glass tanks are not recommended.438

Grooming and care the hands-on bits

Offer fresh water every day in a shallow dish; regular shallow soaks encourage drinking. Hermann's tortoises naturally go through a winter dormancy, which in captivity should be managed carefully: Tortoise Trust advises keeping it at about 4-6 C (never near freezing and not above 10 C for long), with constant temperature monitoring and a weight check before and during. Typical duration is about 8-10 weeks for small tortoises up to about 16 weeks for large ones.861

Home where they are happiest

Ideally a secure, predator-proof outdoor enclosure with sun, shade, planted cover and hiding places, plus an indoor 'tortoise table' (an open-topped pen) for cooler weather. Indoors give about 14 hours of light and heat a day: a basking spot of 32-35 C directly under the lamp, a gradient down to around 24 C, and UVB lighting 30-45 cm above the basking area. Night temperatures can drop to about 15 C.58

Food basics what goes in the bowl

Herbivore that grazes on wild flowers, leaves, stalks and weeds. Aim for a high-fibre, low-protein, calcium-rich diet built on safe garden weeds and flowers. Keep fruit to a minimum and leave out pet food, bread, dairy, peas and beans. In the wild it may also nibble the odd snail or slug.813

Company who they like around

Does well kept alone or in small groups with plenty of space. Avoid housing two males together, keep species apart, and do not overcrowd. Groups work best with more females than males and enough cover for each tortoise to get out of sight.85

The story where it all began

Johann Friedrich Gmelin gave the species its scientific name in 1789 in the 13th edition of Systema Naturae, naming it after Jean (Johann) Hermann, a natural history professor in Strasbourg; the original reference specimen, a plastron, is kept at the Strasbourg natural history museum. Soon after, an illustration by Schoepff in 1792 mistakenly labelled it Testudo graeca, which is why older French texts call it the 'Greek tortoise' and why German still uses Griechische Landschildkröte. For a long time the subspecies names were muddled, until Roger Bour's 1987 work fixed the French population as the true western form, T. h. hermanni, with the eastern form T. h. boettgeri (named after German herpetologist Oskar Boettger in 1889) spreading from the Balkans to the Black Sea. A third Dalmatian form, hercegovinensis, is now usually treated as a local variant. Today it is one of the classic pet tortoises of Europe, and international trade is regulated under CITES Appendix II.421

Recognised by the official bits

The Reptile Database

Valid species Testudo hermanni Gmelin, 1789, with two subspecies: T. h. hermanni Gmelin 1789 and T. h. boettgeri Mojsisovics 18892

IUCN Red List

Listed as Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1 per Wikipedia); Animal Diversity Web gives Near Threatened1

CITES

Appendix II1