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| Mitochondrial diversity of the widespread Central Asian steppe |
Mitochondrial diversity of the widespread Central Asian steppe
The Central Asian tortoise (AGRIONEMYS HORSFIELDI) is a medium-sized tortoise, usually reaching 18 - 20 cm. Individual specimens (females) can grow up to 30 cm. The shell is relatively high, grayish-yellowish. Plain specimens, as a rule, have a uniform color, without spots. Mountain turtles have distinct dark spots on their backs. On the front legs 4 fingers. Young turtles are painted more brightly than adults and always have dark spots, regardless of habitat. The Central Asian tortoise, like all land tortoises, is included in the second Appendix of the Washington Convention (CITES).
The Central Asian tortoise is distributed in the south of Kazakhstan, in the Central Asian countries - Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, northern and eastern Iran, in the northern part of India and Pakistan and in the adjacent areas of western China. It inhabits arid territories everywhere - semi-deserts, clay deserts, salt marshes, takyrs, adyrs, rises to mountains up to 1300 meters above sea level. Often settles on agricultural lands - cotton fields, vineyards, melons. The activity is daytime, at night the turtles dig into the ground. Burrows are up to several meters in length.
For captivity, a spacious terrarium with a bottom area of at least 0.3 square meters per couple of animals is required. Keeping on the floor in the room is unacceptable.
Soil with a thickness of 5-10 cm is necessarily laid at the bottom of the terrarium. It can be coarse river sand, fine gravel, garden soil, peat. A very good design option - soaked red clay is poured to the bottom of the terrarium. After a few days, it dries up and cracks picturesquely. Your terrarium takes on the form of a Central Asian takyr. In dried clay, turtles love to dig holes and feel safe.
Soil with a thickness of 5-10 cm is necessarily laid at the bottom of the terrarium. It can be coarse river sand, fine gravel, garden soil, peat. A very good design option - soaked red clay is poured to the bottom of the terrarium. After a few days, it dries up and cracks picturesquely. Your terrarium takes on the form of a Central Asian takyr. In dried clay, turtles love to dig holes and feel safe.
When kept without soil or on too small a layer, turtles spend hours and sometimes even days in the corner of the terrarium, even refuse to feed. Under natural conditions, turtles spend most of their time basking in the sun. For the normal development of captive reptiles, it is necessary to arrange an artificial “sun”. For this, either a domestic erythema lamp or Repti Glo lamps are installed in the terrarium. In their absence, you can use any other quartz lamp, being careful not to cause burns to the cornea of the eyes, both ours and the turtle. In summer, it is useful to take the turtle to a balcony or veranda for insolation.
Turtles grow very slowly and reach puberty at the age of about 10 years. Animals raised in captivity mature faster. For mating, animals must go through challenging hibernation. To do this, turtles are cooled to 10 - 15 C, placing them for 1 - 2 months in the vegetable compartment of a domestic refrigerator. After mating, after a month, the female lays 6 to 15 eggs in several portions, weighing 30 g. Incubation lasts more than three months at a humidity of 80% and a temperature of 30 C. The hatched babies are 3 - 3.5 cm long.
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