Reptiles
Russian Tortoise
Testudo horsfieldii · also called Horsfield's tortoise, Central Asian tortoise, steppe tortoise
The Russian tortoise is a small, plain, four-clawed tortoise of the Central Asian steppe with two unusual claims to fame: it spends most of its life asleep underground, and it beat the Apollo 8 astronauts to the Moon.
Overview
Testudo horsfieldii lives across the dry steppe and clay deserts of Central Asia. It is small, 13–25 cm, with a low yellowish-olive shell and just four claws on each foot. It grazes weeds and grasses and gets its water from food and dew.
Awake for weeks, asleep for months
Its climate is brutal, so it is active for only about three months in spring. It digs burrows up to two metres deep and spends the hot summer and the freezing winter dormant, underground for most of the year.
First around the Moon
In September 1968, two steppe tortoises aboard the Soviet Zond 5 probe looped around the Moon and returned to Earth — the first animals to travel to lunar distance, three months ahead of Apollo 8. They came back a little lighter and hungry, but fine.
The pet-trade default
It is the most commonly sold pet tortoise in the US, small and hardy, though most are still wild-caught, chiefly from Uzbekistan.
Status
Vulnerable and declining, from decades of collection for the trade and the loss of the steppe to farming and grazing.
Russian Tortoise: common questions
Were tortoises really the first animals to go around the Moon?
Yes. In September 1968 the Soviet Union launched Zond 5, an uncrewed test of a lunar spacecraft, carrying two steppe tortoises, the species also known as the Russian tortoise, along with mealworms, seeds, plants, and bacteria. The probe swung around the far side of the Moon and returned, splashing down in the Indian Ocean after about six or seven days. The tortoises had lost around 10 percent of their body weight and were hungry but otherwise healthy. They reached lunar distance three months before the Apollo 8 astronauts, making them, and their fellow passengers, the first living things from Earth to travel that far and come back.
How long is a Russian tortoise actually active each year?
Only a small fraction of the year. In the wild it emerges from its burrow in early spring, when the steppe briefly greens up after the snowmelt, and spends roughly two to three months feeding intensively and, for adults, mating and laying eggs. As the vegetation dries and temperatures climb, it retreats underground and enters aestivation for the summer, then remains dormant through the freezing winter. So a wild Russian tortoise may be above ground and active for as little as 8 to 12 weeks a year. Pet tortoises kept warm year-round stay active, but many keepers give them a controlled cool-down period to match their natural rhythm.
Do Russian tortoises make good pets?
They are among the more manageable pet tortoises because they stay small and are hardy, and a well-kept one can live 40 years or more. They need a large, escape-proof outdoor pen for much of the year in a suitable climate, or a big indoor setup with strong basking heat and UVB, a deep dry substrate they can dig into, and a diet of grasses and broad-leaved weeds rather than fruit or vegetables. The main ethical issue is sourcing — most Russian tortoises in the trade are still wild-caught, so a buyer should seek out a captive-bred animal from a breeder, which also tends to be healthier and better adjusted.
Why is the Russian tortoise Vulnerable if it is so common in pet shops?
Because the pet shops are a large part of the problem. For decades the species has been collected from the wild in enormous numbers, principally in Uzbekistan and neighbouring countries, and exported for the pet trade, and the export quotas set under international trade rules have often been higher than conservationists believe the populations can sustain. On top of that, the dry steppe it lives in is being ploughed for agriculture and heavily grazed by livestock, shrinking and degrading its habitat. A species can be abundant in shops and still be declining in the wild, and the Russian tortoise is a clear example.