Hexagonal tortoise problem, which was rst introduced by an old Korean mathematician Suk-Jung Choi (1646-1715) [1], is one of the most complicated tortoise problems. Since there has been no general heuristic to solve the hexagonal tortoise, an exhaustive search has been considered to be the only way for solving the problem to the optimum [4]. Recently a number of heuristics for the problem have ...

Conservation policy in the giant Galápagos tortoise, an iconic endangered animal, has been assisted by genetic markers for ~15 years: a dozen loci have been used to delineate thirteen (sub)species, between which hybridization is prevented. Here, comparative reanalysis of a previously published NGS data set reveals a conflict with traditional markers. Genetic diversity and population substructur...

Liver mitochondria from the desert tortoise Gopherus agassizii and the Texas tortoise G. berlandieri contain glutamine synthetase, the enzyme used by birds and higher reptiles to detoxify ammonia generated intramitochondrially during amino acid catabolism. Tortoise mitochondria also contain carbamyl phosphate synthetase-I and ornithine transcarbamylase, the enzymes used by mammals for this purp...

A single tortoise (Geochelone carbonaria) was trained in an eight-arm radial maze, with the apparatus and general procedures modeled on those used to demonstrate spatial learning in rats. The tortoise learned to perform reliably above chance, preferentially choosing baited arms, rather than returning to arms previously visited on a trial. Test sessions that examined control by olfactory cues re...

A skeletal muscle tumour (rhabdomysarcoma) was diagnosed in a 4-year-old captive female terrestrial tortoise (Geochelone nigra) weighing 7 kg presented at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. The tumour was located at the anterior right portion of the body and ventral to the carapace. The location of the tumour prevented the tortoise from extending its he...

The Galápagos giant tortoise is an icon of the unique, endemic biodiversity of Galápagos, but little is known of its parasitic fauna. We assessed the diversity of parasitic nematode communities and their spatial distributions within four wild tortoise populations comprising three species across three Galápagos islands, and consider their implication for Galápagos tortoise conservation programme...

A new tortoise beetle species, Cyrtonota abrili, is described from the Antioquia and Caldas departments in Colombia. New faunistic data are provided for 87 species, including 16 new additions to the country's fauna. A checklist of the known 238 species of tortoise beetles recorded from Colombia is given.

Native forest in Mauritius has been reduced to patchy degraded fragments and the extinction risk of constituent rare endemic plants is compounded by poor seed germination (Page & D’Argent, 1997; Safford, 1997; Nyhagen et al., 2005). Endemic fruiting plants evolved alongside a number of ecologically important large frugivores that are now extinct, such as the dodo (Raphus cucullatus L.) and two ...

Twenty-four ill or dead desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) were received between March 1992 and July 1995 for necropsies from the Mojave and Colorado deserts of California (USA). Diseases observed in these animals included cutaneous dyskeratosis (n = 7); shell necrosis (n = 2); respiratory diseases (n = 7); urolithiasis (n = 3); and trauma (n = 5). In tortoises with cutaneous dyskeratosis th...

Conservation policy in the giant Galápagos tortoise, an iconic endangered animal, has been assisted by genetic markers for ~15 years: mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite loci have been used to delineate thirteen (sub)species, between which hybridization is prevented. Here, comparative reanalysis of a previously published NGS data set reveals a conflict with traditional markers. Genetic diversi...