Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) road mortality and extralimital occurrence in Western Cape, South Africa
Date
2019-12-24
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Cape Town Libraries
Abstract
During field surveys in the Spring of 2018 we made two observations of Leopard Tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis) on roadsides near Lambert's Bay, WC, South Africa. One was a deceased adult female, killed as a result of a tortoise-vehicle collision. The other was a live adult females, which was move off the road in the direction she was headed. These observations illustrate that even the largest tortoise species in the region can be suseptable to road mortlaity, a known threat of turtle and torioses populations globally. Furthermore, these observations occured well outside the species presumed native range and listed introduced range.
Description
CITATION: Baxter-Gilbert, J. & Riley, J. L. 2019. Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) road mortality and extralimital occurrence in Western Cape, South Africa. Biodiversity Observations, 10(10.12):1–4, doi:10.15641/bo.v10i0.732.
The original publication is available at https://journals.uct.ac.za
The original publication is available at https://journals.uct.ac.za
Keywords
Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) -- South Africa -- Western Cape, Traffic fatalities -- South Africa -- Western Cape, Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) -- Mortality
Citation
Baxter-Gilbert, J. & Riley, J. L. 2019. Leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) road mortality and extralimital occurrence in Western Cape, South Africa. Biodiversity Observations, 10(10.12):1–4, doi:10.15641/bo.v10i0.732.