Size: Length; 18-21cm but only 5 cm high.

Age: Up to 26 years.

Habitat and distribution: Found on hillsides with rocky outcrops known as kopjes in north and east Tanzania and southern Kenya in Africa.

Groups and breeding: These tortoises live in isolated colonies with many individuals sharing the same outcrop. During January and February males fight to mate with the females with the larger males winning. The females dig a nest 7-10 cm deep in sandy soil and lay a single egg at a time but up to 4 eggs are laid over a season with gaps of 4-8 weeks in between. Eggs incubate for between 113-300 days but despite the staggered hatching the development of the earlier eggs ends to be delayed so that the young all hatch together.

Diet: Grasses, leaves and fallen fruits.

• Unlike other tortoises, the Pancake Tortoise has a flexible flattened shell and rather than withdraw into it when threatened by predators, it retreats and wedges itself into rock crevices.
• Like some other tortoises, this species will aestivate (a kind of hibernation) during the dry season to protect itself from the extremes of temperature.
• The shell of this tortoise is so thin and flexible that the bottom part actually moves in an out as the tortoise breathes.
• These tortoises are highly agile climbers so that they can get about over the rocks amongst which they live.