The Radiated Tortoise has a black patch on its head.

Everyone, apparently, knows this is where radiated tortoises are sold, and the men seem to be making sure that no trouble comes to our hostess.

At what point does a radiated tortoise go from a piece of nature's bounty to contraband?

As we begin home, Benjamin tells me that the radiated tortoises now live in a very limited area, which is shrinking all the time.

The Radiated Tortoise likes to use the same food source many times before choosing a new one.

"She seems less than willing... It's a slow process, but radiated tortoises don't do anything quickly."

The Radiated Tortoise can weigh up to 35 lbs.

The radiated tortoise is a type of tortoise.

Just beneath the edge of a shrub, a mature radiated tortoise - large as a boulder - rests in the shadows.

He tracked the island's radiated tortoises using radiotelemetry, and in the past decade helped establish preserves to protect them.

Compared to females, male radiated tortoises usually have longer tails and the notch beneath the tail is more noticeable.

Especially the radiated tortoise.

And I have the radiated tortoises, of course, which I got 45 years ago from a French dealer who couldn't give them away.

The radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata) is a species in the family Testudinidae.

Radiated tortoises occur naturally only in the extreme southern and southwestern part of the island of Madagascar.

Two other live but endangered creatures, Japanese alligators and radiated tortoises, have joined the cichlids as exhibition objects.

As the radiated tortoises are herbivores, grazing constitutes 80-90% of their diet, while they also eat fruits and succulent plants.

This is where I have come to look for illegally transported radiated tortoises, which can sell in the States for as much as $10,000 each.

He reaches into his shelter and extracts a sack with five radiated tortoises, from a near-adult 20-pounder to a youthful specimen of perhaps 2.

In one corner, hemmed by plywood boards leaning against two beds, is a pen filled with radiated tortoises stacked two and three deep.

Radiated Tortoise Fact Sheet.

Radiated tortoise (Astrochelys radiata)

Tu'i Malila, a radiated tortoise presented to the Tongan royal family by Captain Cook, lived for over 185 years.

It was a radiated tortoise (Geochelone radiata) from Madagascar and is the second longest-lived tortoise whose age has been verified.