Size: Length; 50-83cm (males are larger than females). Weight; average up to 80 kg.

Age: Up to 54 years.

Habitat and distribution: Hot arid regions and savannah throughout the southern edge of the Sahara, from Senegal and Mauritania, east through Mali, Niger, Chad, the Sudan and Ethiopia to Eritrea.

Groups and breeding: These tortoises can be highly aggressive towards each other, fighting even immediately after hatching, but especially so at breeding times. The female will dig four or five nests until she is sure she has the right one when she will lay 15-30 eggs. These eggs then incubate underground for around 212 days in the wild but less in captivity.

Diet: Succulent plants, leaves and grasses.

• The African Spurred Tortoise is the largest tortoise in Africa and is only beaten in size in the world by the giant island species from the Aldabra Islands in the Indian Ocean and the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
• To prevent drying out during the dry season, these tortoises aestivate in their moist burrows. This is similar to hibernation and protects animals from extreme conditions.
• African Spurred Tortoises are under threat due to loss of habitat as a result of urbanisation, over-grazing by domestic cattle and desertification (the process whereby the desert is gradually getting larger). Also these tortoises are often exported to Japan where they are used to make longevity medicines.
• Male Spurred Tortoises have two or three spurs on either side of their tail, hence the name.
• Spurred Tortoises can go for weeks without food and water; when they finally get access to water they can drink 15% of their body weight in one go.