About Bowsprit Tortoise
September 10, 2005
The bowsprit tortoise is one species of tortoise that upholds the evoltion process in a constant turn of change. The bowsprit tortoise is only found in a very small geographical range in south africa. The bowsprit tortoise range of its natural habitate starts in western south afica, and goes as far as Namibia and cape province. The population of bowsprit tortoise is quite threatend to a great deal of low population in the wild. The last number recorded was in 1989 on one of the islands it is found Dassen Island, was 5,937.
The bowsprit tortise has an interesting way of life. It is not only a very small tortoise ranged from 3.9 inches to 7.8 inches in full length. The males have a very long extended Gular scute that is used for male aggression in not only mating purposes but territorial needs. Male bowsprit tortoises that are "alphas" dominate certain land ranges and will only allow females in during breeding seasons, and sometimes other males are allowed in very seldomly though.
The bowsprit tortoise is a island inhabitor of a species of penguin called the jackass penguin. The jackass penguin eats all the plants and grasses the bowsprit tortoise feeds on and leaves waste behind, in turn depletes the population of the bowsprit tortise for that year. If the following year the jackass penguin population declines the Bowsprit tortoise population increases. Thus far leading the bowsprit tortoise to one of the most tangable pieces of evidence of "survival of the fittiest". The bowsprit tortoise has trouble with having a huge impact on the wild population. Each year 80 percent of the hachtlings that live will in turn downsize to 40 percent ounce that 80 percent is around a year old. The remaining 40 percent will all live until they are eight years or older, then a 2 percent mortality rate around that age.
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