Growth

The male born in August 2011 is growing nicely. It looks as though new spots are appearing in the growth lines of the carapace, only on the marginal areas. 

Its tail is still very thin and the chin and face are not dark yet.

Although this is a Clemmys blog, today I will post some Testudo hermanni hermanni pictures.
Catalonia has a native population of the western subspecies. It is very protected and it is forbidden to keep Testudo hermanni,  never mind if they have been captive bred and have their CITES or they belong to the other subspecies, Testudo hermanni boettgeri.

The Catalan Environmental Department allows privates to collaborate in a captive breeding program of this species if some requirements (space, climate, security measures...) are achieved.  The CRARC are the ones that inspect the facilities and organize and control the captive breeding program. The animals that privates obtain are used in a reintroduction program in areas from Catalonia where this species lived before. They are not used to reinforce the places where the native species still survive. The CRARC are the ones that run this program, and the ones that organize and control the privates collaboration.
They borrowed me two males and three females, but the idea is to have 2 males and 8 females. They are kept in two separate groups.

Female with balearic fenotype

The key hole spot in V5, characteristic of this subspecies

This female has some pyramiding from previous owner (it could be a decomised animal)

This summer they have layed 2-3 times and the nests had between 4-6 eggs. I didn't notice some nests, but I knew they had layed for palpation. Most nests were in full sun but near the roots of plants and small bushes.

A nest on the top.middle of the picture, the ground with a different color

A picture nearer. The ground in the laying area is "sauló"

Another nest, under my shadow

Picking up the eggs of a nest

To increase the chances of success I incubated the eggs of more or less the half of the nests in a Jaeguer incubator.
For some reason, the eggs incubated naturally failed. The place where I have them falls in the potential natural range for the species, so I thought it was strange.
For comparison all the eggs in the incubator hatched. I know what to do next summer.

You can see the yellow spot on the face, characteristic of this subspecies

They are fed only weeds. This picture if from September the 30th, a very warm September (28ºC at noon)

I bath them so they can hydrate, but in hot days, I sometimes water the area with the goose. And they do the same that they do in a summer thunderstorm in the wild, they quickly drink from the pudles before the water filtrates.

 I will keep them untill they are more than 10 cm., so they pass the most vulnerable years. Then they will be released and they will be exposed to forest fire, predators (specially wild boars), humans... A few of them will reach adulthood, maybe none. 

I know there is a contradicion here. For one side  I keep chelonians for hobby, and this hobby is one of the causes of wild chelonian population depletion. On the other side  I collaborate in a breeding program to help the tortoises in the wild. Contradictory, like human nature.