- African pancake tortoise
- Amethystine python
- Black marsh turtle
- Blue-tongued skink
- Colombian rainbow boa
- Cuban boa
- Egyptian tortoise
- Geoffroy's side-necked turtle
- Giant tortoise
- Gila monster
- Golden Mantella frog
- Green tree python
- Inland bearded dragon
- Madagascan tree boa
- Marbled milk frog
- Philippine sail-fin water dragon
- Plumed basilisk
- Poison arrow frog
- Prehensile-tailed skink
- Red-eared terrapin
- Rhinoceros iguana
- Standing's day gecko
- Thai tree frog
- Veiled chameleon
- West African dwarf crocodile
- Western chuckwalla
- White-lipped python
- Yellow-spotted Amazon River turtle
- Yellow-headed day's gecko
African pancake tortoise
Scientific name: Malacochersus tornieri
Country: Kenya, Tanzania
Continent: Africa
Diet: Grasses- graminivore, succulent plants. In the Zoo they are given grasses, dandelions, plantains, dead nettles, goose grass and the occasional piece of carrot as a treat.
Food & feeding: Herbivore
Habitats: Tropical grassland
Conservation status: Vulnerable
Relatives: Giant tortoise, Egyptian tortoise
Description: The pancake tortoise is quite a different shape from other tortoises. The adult's shell is about 15 cm long and only about 3 cm high, presenting a very flattened appearance, hence its name. The shell is very soft and flexible so that it yields under pressure, enabling it to squeeze into crevices in times of danger.
Lifestyle: Pancake tortoises inhabit rocky granite outcrops called 'kopjes' and they are agile climbers. When disturbed, the tortoise runs and hides in crevices in the rock, where it anchors itself with its front legs and wedges its soft flexible shell against the sides of the hiding place so tightly that it is very difficult to remove. They are most active in the cool morning.
Family & friends: Pancake tortoises are sometimes found in quite large numbers on a single kopje. Large males get the most chances to mate in the breeding season. Small males will not even approach females in the presence of larger males.
Growing up: The female tortoise will lay one egg at a time, and up to four in a year at different times. Incubation is very variable and takes up to six months. There is a period of delayed development at the beginning, possibly so that all the eggs hatch together to coincide with the period of greatest food availability. The baby tortoises are independent as soon as they hatch.
Conservation news: This species is designated as 'Vulnerable in the wild' and is now the subject of a co-ordinated breeding programme within UK and European Zoos, managed by Bristol Zoo Gardens. Collecting for the pet trade is an ever-present threat.
Several young pancake tortoises have been hatched successfully in the Zoo's incubators.
The rocky outcrops that these tortoises live on have other interesting inhabitants too. The rock hyrax is a small animal, a little like a rabbit, that is in fact closely related to elephants.
