Central Asian Tortoise

Fascinating facts about the Central Asian Tortoise

• A tiny shell that can shrink to a length of just 13 cm (5 in) makes the Central Asian tortoise one of the world’s smallest land turtles, yet females can reach 25 cm (10 in) to house their eggs. This size contrast shows how even the smallest reptiles fine-tune their bodies for reproduction.
• When the desert heat spikes, these tortoises retreat into burrows as deep as 2 m (6 ft 7 in), creating cool underground refuges where they can stay for up to 9 months a year. Their ability to disappear underground for most of the year reveals a survival strategy that turns extreme climates into safe havens.
• In the wild they can hibernate anywhere from 8 weeks to 5 months, depending on the season, and some individuals spend as much as three-quarters of the year in dormancy. Such a long pause in activity underscores how they conserve energy when food and water are scarce.
• Two of these steppe tortoises were the first Earth creatures to orbit the Moon, circling it on the Soviet Zond 5 mission in September 1968 before safely returning home. Their space-flight milestone reminds us that even the humblest animals can become pioneers of interplanetary exploration.

At a glance

About the Central Asian Tortoise

The Central Asian tortoise, Testudo horsfieldii, is a diminutive yet striking member of the Testudinidae, measuring 13–25 cm (5–10 in) with females reaching up to 25 cm to accommodate their eggs. Its shell is a ruddy brown or black canvas, fading to yellow between the scutes, while the body displays straw-yellow and brown tones that shift among subspecies. Sexual dimorphism is pronounced: males are smaller, bear longer tails tucked to the side, and sport four elongated front claws, whereas females have a short, fat tail and a broader, asterisk-shaped vent. In the wild these tortoises inhabit dry, open steppe and desert margins from the Caspian Sea south through Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, east across Kazakhstan to Xinjiang, China, seeking sandy soils where they can dig burrows up to two metres deep. They spend the heat of midday and the chill of night underground, emerging at dawn and dusk to graze on herbaceous and succulent vegetation, grasses, twigs, flowers and occasional fruit, while their social nature leads several individuals to share a single refuge. A surprising quirk of their biology emerged in September 1968, when two of these modest reptiles became the first Earth creatures to travel to and circle the Moon aboard the Soviet Zond 5 mission, returning safely to our planet.

More reptiles to discover

Browse Feravox