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Understanding the movements of animals in the wild is critical for providing important information regarding their conservation and management. With this aim in mind, we studied a population of Tes...

Males and females of Hermann’s tortoise (Testudo hermanni) exhibit a conspicuous yellow patch on both their cheeks, whose origin and potential function are totally unknown. In this study, we measured the extent and the colour intensity of these patches in 29 male and 19 female tortoises in order to test for sexual difference in these features. In addition, we analysed the relationships between patch features and body condition to investigate the possible function of these ornaments as status signals. We detected symmetric yellow patches in all sampled females, while five males did not show at all the ornament, and two had a yellow patch only on the left cheek. Although head and scale size, as well as RGB values, did not differ between sexes, female patches were significantly larger than those of males. In addition, the extent of cheek patches was correlated to female body condition, suggesting that these ornaments may have evolved as honest signals of quality through sexual selection processes driven by female–female contests over rank or by male mate choice.

Many animals use chemical and visual cues to obtain reliable information about potential food resources. Most reptiles have evolved highly specialized chemosensory and visual capacities, in particular colour vision, to accomplish this task. By presenting animals with flowers and coloured cardboard discs in two-choice experiments, we examined whether both male and female Hermann's tortoises (Testudo hermanni) were able to distinguish between different colours, and show some preference for certain colours. We found that both sexes responded and discriminated equally between different colours, with some differences between flowers and discs. In particular, the red was preferred in the disc experiment, mainly by males, but was disregarded by both sexes in the flower experiment, where red was represented by poppy, Papaver rhoeas. This suggests that Hermann's tortoise probably relies on a mixed system of olfactory and visual abilities to detect food in order to optimize the intake of essential nutrient...

The current distribution of the Hermann's tortoise, Testitelo hermanni (Gmelin, 1789), in Italy is very scattered. Most of populations occur along the Thyrrhenian coast, particularly southern Tuscany, and Latium, where the most high density was observed. Other populations, probably autochthonous, can be found in Campania and in Calabria. Along the Adriatic coast, the biggest populations can be found in Apulia, Abruzzo and Molise. The species also occurs in some sites of Sicily and Sardinia. In the northern Italy, the Hermann's tortoise has almost disappeared and can be found only in the Po River Delta, such as the Bosco della Mesola. Sites are mainly located in the coasts but, in some cases, also in the inland up to mountains slopes. Further sightings in other areas concerned isolated individuals probably released from captivity. In the present paper the results of a population study carried out in the Bosco della Mesola Reserve, are discussed. The population structure is dominated by adults over 20 years...