Identification of Hermann's Tortoise Subspecies

The Hermann's tortoise, a small to medium-sized land-dwelling animal found throughout Europe, is currently recognized by three subspecies. The eastern form, Testudo hermanni botgeri, the Dalmatian form, Testudo hermanni herzigovinensis, and the very rare western or Italian form, Testudo hermanni hermanni. Western Hermann's tortoises, or also known as the Italian tortoises, are not only found throughout Italy. They are also found in the south of France, as well as parts of Spain, including the Balearic Islands. Seldomly seen in captivity, as well as in the wild, these animals are poorly understood. While eastern and Dalmatian Hermann's tortoises may resemble each other very closely, there are quite a few very defining characteristics that separate the western race. Alright, here we have the eastern Hermann's tortoise, Testudo hermanni botgeri. This is the most commonly seen of the three subspecies, both in captivity and in the wild. Adult males can attain sizes larger than six inches, and females, like this one, can be nine inches or more. This is the largest of the three subspecies, as well. Here on the carapace, the ground color is a yellowish tan to khaki, or it can be brown, or a horn color. It's bordered by dark brown or black blotches and spots, or bars. The highest point of the carapace is situated more towards the back, rather than in the middle or towards the front. On the plastron, two longitudinal black bands run down it, but they're broken or faded. As you can see, they're straight here, but they break up here, here, here, and there's almost nothing here. This is the femoral scoot seam, where these two scoots on the plastron meet, and this is the pectoral, where these two scoots meet. Now, normally in easterns, the pectoral is wider than that of the femoral, but because there's so much variation in any tortoise belonging to the Mediterranean crowd, they can vary. So, you've got a femoral here that's longer than that of the pectoral. Also, in the eastern, inguinal scoots are present. Now, these are found just in front of each rear leg, by the knee, and they come up right here. This is an older specimen, so that there's some wear to her, but they look almost like a V that comes up. You can see them right there. They're very present. Now, going back to the carapace, the fifth vertebral scoot, which is right here, you go one, two, three, four, five, usually exhibits a marking like this, where there's really no defining characteristic to it. It's kind of washed out. There's no real symbol to it. The supracardial shield right here is divided. Now, in a lot of easterns, it's undivided. This used to once be used as a tool to identify easterns from other subspecies of Hermann's tortoise, but that's no longer really accepted. As you can see, this one, this is a purebred eastern Hermann's tortoise, but she has a supracardial shield that is divided. When you look at the limbs, the skin coloration, and the head of the eastern Hermann's, they're more drab colored. They have dark scales bordered by some highlights of green or yellow. The head is very bulky and round with bigger eyes, and they really kind of usually lack any defining characteristics as far as spotting or flex go. Younger specimens can have brighter colors, but in the older ones, like this one, it's very dark. Here we have the Dalmatian tortoise, Testudo hermani herzigovenensis. This is a more recently described subspecies of Hermann's, although it was once described many years ago. Just now, it's really being accepted again, and unfortunately, people are learning what they have when they thought all along they had eastern Hermann's. This is where it gets very confusing. These animals look very, very, very alike. Sometimes their patterns are different, as in this one. The carapace still has the dark blotches that border the tan or horn colored ground color. The highest point of the carapace on the Dalmatian is usually situated more towards the center, but it also can be towards the back. The fifth vertebral scoot, again, one, two, three, four, five, lacks any kind of really defining characteristic there, although there can be something. The supracaudal shield is divided, and when you flip them over, they tend to usually have more black banding than as compared to the eastern. Still, they remain broken up. They're not a straight line. They're broken here, they blotch here, they're broken there, there, there, and there. The femoral and pectoral scoot seam, a lot of times, are almost the same length, or the exact same length. Again, they can vary. The pectoral can be longer, or the femoral can be longer, but in this one, they're just about the same length. The most defining characteristic, when identifying Dalmatian tortoises, is the lack of the inguinal scoots right here. Now, if you remember, when you go back to the eastern, they had the inguinal scoots coming up here. These completely lack them. Many Dalmatian tortoises can and do have them, and they may also have one on one side and none on the other. Majority of them are lacking them completely. Going to the brown color of the skin and limbs, neck, and head, again, it's usually darker with some light highlights. A lot of Dalmatian tortoises, I don't know if you can see it that well, will exhibit some green or yellow spotting on the head. They may also have the remnants of a yellow fleck underneath and behind each eye, but in older specimens like this one, they're completely lacking. The tail and back legs also have pretty much the same ground color with lighter scales on the feet and surrounding the tail, as well as the horny tip on the tail that all three subspecies have. The head of the Dalmatian tortoise is kind of more like the eastern. It may be tapered off a little bit, but as you can see, this animal has a pretty rounded head with smaller eyes than the eastern, but this is also a smaller animal. These are probably the most difficult to identify because they resemble the eastern very, very closely. All right, now here we have the western Hermann's tortoise, or also known as the Italian tortoise. This is the one I really want to talk to you guys about because it's perhaps the most poorly understood of the three subspecies. Start off with size. This is actually large for an adult female. She's just surpassed six inches, whereas most females don't get any larger than five and a half. Males will usually top out at four inches, maybe four and a half. Now, different parts of their range, they can be smaller or larger, but I'm just going to try to generalize this for you right now. We'll start off by looking at the carapace. As you can see, the markings, even in this very old female, are very vibrant, very well defined. She's got a golden yellow brown color to her carapace bordered by jet black bars, bands, spots, however you want to define them. On the fifth vertebral scute, again, one, two, three, four, five, she's got a marking reminiscent of that of a keyhole. You can see right here, it looks like an old skeleton key to go into. The supracaudal shield just below it is always divided, always divided in these tortoises if they are purebred. The highest point of the carapace is situated more towards the front, not in the middle like the dalmatian, and not towards the back like the eastern. If you flip them over to view the plastron, this is probably their most well-known feature. Two longitudinal jet black bands run parallel to each other on the plastron, and they are unbroken. As you can see, there's no space in the colors here. They're not faded. They're straight down, and this is an old female that has retained her color. The femoral scute seam compared to that of the pectoral is always wider than that of the pectoral. When dealing with hatchlings or very young animals, the scute seams may have not evened out yet, whereas the pectoral may be wider than that of the femoral, or they can be the same. But in adult animals that have maxed out and are usually done growing, the femoral is going to be longer than that of the pectoral. Inguinal scutes, as in found on the eastern, are just about always present. There are rare sightings of them in the wild where they're lacking them, just like the dalmatian tortoise, but nine times out of ten, they've got them. As you can see them right here, just in front of each rear leg. The overall shape, the overall shape of the western hermit's tortoise is typically a rounder even in males. They do exhibit some flaring out trapezoidal shape like most members of the mediterranean tortoise crowd, but they tend to be much rounder, more smooth, oblong. Let's take a look at the head now. The head of Testudo hermani hermani is snake-like or sleek in appearance. It comes to more of a point, the eyes are smaller, they have more coloration. As you can see, the skin on the legs and nails and even the head is a light green to yellow. Even though she's old, you can still see right underneath and behind the eye, there's a yellow patch. That's one of the defining characteristics in these animals as well. They do sometimes lose them with age and certain animals within their range from different populations may be lacking them, but it is one of the good characteristics to look for when properly identifying these rare animals. All right, here we have a pair of western hermit's tortoises, female, male. This is a more typical size for the adults, five and a half inch female, four inch male. As you can see, their colors are very sharp and well-defined with good characteristics. This is the key holes right here on them or mushrooms and also the divided supercaudal shield. The head, as I've said before, is very sleek and snake-like, yellow patch under the eye. Looking at the plastrons, this is their most defining characteristic. The jet black bands that are unbroken except for on the anal scutes, slightly, a larger femoral seam compared to pectoral. All right, here we have a yearling and a hatchling belonging to the western race, Testudo hermanae hermanae. If you look at them, they've got very well-defined and sharp colors on the carapaces. Looking at the back end here, they also have very sharp and well-defined keyhole symbols on the fifth vertebral scoot already. Flipping them over, at a very young age, they already have very well-defined black bands on the plastron. They're unbroken. They come out of the egg like this. Just under and below each eye, they have the bright yellow cheek patch. Again, only wears with age in the western subspecies. If we compare them here to an adult female, they basically look like little mini versions. Their colors tend to come out more with age, but they do have the keyhole symbol just like her. On the plastron, they're jet black. All right, lastly, I want to compare all three subspecies of Herman's tortoise together. We've got the eastern Testudo hermanae bulgari on the right here, the Dalmatian Testudo hermanae herzigovinensis in the middle, and lastly, the western or Italian Herman's tortoise Testudo hermanae hermanae all the way over here on the left. Now, looking at the carapaces, this bird's-eye view of them, you can tell right off the bat who's got the more definition in the carapace colors. She's also rounder in shape when it's compared to these two that are a little bit more elongated or flared out at the back. When you flip them over, this is what I really wanted to show you guys. The banding on the plastron in the eastern, very faded, broken up, not defined. In the Dalmatian, it's a little bit more defined, yet still broken in areas, but with the western, they are completely solid bands. They are never broken. Femoral to pectoral scoot seam comparisons here can vary. Like I said, typically in easterns, it's supposed to be a larger pectoral compared to femoral, whereas the western is supposed to be larger here, smaller there, and in Dalmatian, it can be even, but those can and do vary a lot. Most of the time, a true western is going to have a larger femoral scoot seam compared to a pectoral. When you look at the back ends here, again, the fifth vertebral scoot, one, two, three, four, five, one, two, three, four, five, and one, two, three, four, five. She's got a very well-defined keyhole or mushroom symbol on it, whereas these two do not. They can resemble it somewhere along the lines, especially in younger specimens, but adults, they usually fade out. There's not much definition to them. The western Hermann's usually always retains that. As you can see in all three here, the supracardial shield is divided, but remembering with westerns, it is always divided. In these two, it may or may not be. Usually, the Dalmatian is divided. Eastern can have either or. Western is always divided. The heads of them, again, are very different. Western has very snake-like or lizard-sleek-like head, bright yellow eye patch. Dalmatian does not have either of those, and neither does the eastern. Again, the eastern is the largest. Dalmatian is usually in the middle, and the western is almost always the smallest. The basic way to remember this is this is going to be your more attractive, more well-defined-looking animal. It comes down to opinion, but there's definitely more definition in these animals. These are the rarest subspecies of Hermann's tortoise, very, very rarely seen both in captivity and in the wild. They're disappearing in their range, and here at Garden State Tortoise, we're trying to do everything we can to prolong their existence in captivity. Today, it is through captive breeding efforts as well as conservation that Hermann's tortoises are still seen both in captivity and somewhat in the wild. If lucky enough to work with the western subspecies, I must advise that you do not mix them with any other species of tortoise and even other subspecies of Hermann's tortoise. These animals are rare both in nature and in captive collections, and keeping the bloodlines pure is something I have strived for here for many years. I can only hope that you will do the same. In conclusion, I would like to point out that in this video, I have tried to feature the typical traits that are found in all three subspecies of Hermann's tortoise, but as nature allows, there is a lot of variation. For more questions, information, or anything else, please send an email to chrisleonee at GardenStateTortoise.com, or please feel free to visit my website for more pictures, videos, information, care sheets, and available animals at GardenStateTortoise.com. Also, please feel free to check out my article in the January 2011 issue of Reptiles Magazine on Western Hermann's tortoises.