Leopard Tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis) Road Mortality and Extralimital Occurence in Western Cape, South Africa.

Abstract

During field surveys in the Spring of 2018 we made two observations of Leopard Tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis) on roadsides near Lambert's Bay, WC, South Africa. One was a deceased adult female, killed as a result of a tortoise-vehicle collision. The other was a live adult females, which was move off the road in the direction she was headed. These observations illustrate that even the largest tortoise species in the region can be suseptable to road mortlaity, a known threat of turtle and torioses populations globally. Furthermore, these observations occured well outside the species presumed native range and listed introduced range.