hi all,
a while ago i posted pics of my tortoise as i didnt know what species they were ne way cut the story short i got then id'd by you lot and turns out they are tunisian? well i contacted defra about this as i dont have papers for them ,well they put me in touch with cities who put me in touch with my local animal welfare people, they came out and took photo's of my torts to get them sent off to a specialist tortoise vets in leeds, i havent herd from this bloke for over a week so today i rang him and he said the vet thinks they are horsfield, i was in stitches as horsfield my this vet obviousley knows nothing as there is a massive differance in tunisian and horsfield i also own horsfields and they are NOT HORSFIELD just thaught i would tell you this tale and see what you think of it,this animal welfare man will be geting back to be as he is adament they are horsfields and says i dont need certs for them if this is the case,we all know better than this man and his SPECIALIST VET who happens to talk from her but!! i have added pics of my tunisians and horsfields to the bottom this post spot the diffrence lol!!

Lol how funny, your totally right not horsfields. These animal welfare people have not got a clue, no wonder so many die

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i am horrified citied put me intouch with them tho lol
is there difrent types of tunisian and do they have spurs

No tunisians are tunisians

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o andy seems to think they hve spurs im going to have a look now

ok i see were he means on their foot they do have a spike thing sticking down over is this normal?

Tunisians belong to the spur-thigh group Claire, here's some info on them:

http://www.tortoisetrust.org/articles/tunisian.html

CITES and animal welfare people are great aren't they?

For a reliable ID on them why not email a picture of them to the Tortoise Trust... maybe the animal welfare people will take their word?

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I think this actually highlights one of the main problems with the whole CITES enforcement. It relies on people being able to ID species or even subspecies from every genera of animal - it's no wonder they get it wrong. Unless you're an expert in tortoise morphology (even an amateur expert!) it must be a nightmare - especially at borders where checks take place - I mean most customs officials couldn't tell a sulcata from a hermanns! Though I am amused that in this case they tried to find a specialist and still didn't manage it!

My vet tried to convince me Wurtle is a marginated tortoise - which he 100% clearly is not! Brilliant!

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1.1.0 Testudo graeca iberia
Wurtle and Bob

i know its amazing how they can do this, i am gob smacked,

i have mailed the tortoise trust about them before and not had any response, i will try again

thanks tina