Tortoises Everywhere

If you ever wondered how you'd clean yourself if you lived outside, ate off the ground, and had no hands to wipe your mouth with, here you go. Not exactly the neatest critters around.

Interestingly, one of the clues to tell the sex of tortoise since checking genitals if hard (they are really heavy),is the shape of the lower shell. By looking at the edges, it is possible to tell if the bottom is concave or convex. The male lower shell curves inward to make it easier for him to mount up for sex. Pretty cool, eh.

Not that I was ay good at sorting this out. We had our tour guide and a local guide to explain what/who we were seeing.

This fellow below is younger than some, in the 40-60 year old range I think. You can see that it is  bit smaller and hasn't had time to grow such a crop of greenery on his mouth and chin.