African spurred tortoise
Centrochelys sulcata
Seen by the oracleIts power
It digs burrows several metres long. During heatwaves, dozens of other animals come to shelter in them.
Estimated wild population
Unknown (very low densities, among the lowest known)
Trend
Rapidly declining
Range
Sahel / Sudan
Main threat
Habitat loss (farming, overgrazing), poaching for meat and eggs, the pet trade, desertification linked to climate change
Meet it
It really exists. It is waiting for you at the Parc Animalier d’Auvergne.
The African spurred tortoise is the third-largest land tortoise in the world, after the giant tortoises of the Seychelles and the Galápagos. It can weigh up to 105 kg and live more than 100 years. It is also called the sulcata tortoise, from the Latin for “grooved”, because of the deep grooves on its shell plates. It is active from dawn and digs burrows up to 3 metres deep to escape the extreme heat of the Sahel. It has been listed as Endangered since 2020, and its populations may have dropped by 50 to 75% in 90 years, because of habitat destruction, poaching for meat and eggs, the pet trade, and climate change, which is turning its home into desert.
What the Park does
Reintroductions in Senegal, community breeding, presence in protected reserves (W National Park), listed in CITES Appendix II