Meet Testudo hermanni hermanni, a Mediterranean tortoise present in Italy, France and Spain. Its captive breeding was made necessary by the destruction of its native habitat. The challenge for current breeders, unlike most of the species bred as pets, is to maintain as much as possible the purity of the species, subspecies and, if possible, also of the area to which they belong. In fact, for each habitat, these tortoises present a different phenotype and the hypothesis is that with future studies on the genotype it is possible to identify significative differences between populations of tortoises.

At the T-Farm (my own little farm run by my girlfriend and I), in addition to being bred and reproduced in purity, data are collected regarding growth and behavior of these turtles in captivity.

[Photo and caption by Fabrizio Pirrone]