Field observations (tracks and browsing) indicate that animals fed primarily upon the perennial Convolvulus lanatus, and the annuals Eremobium aegyptiacum and Silene villosa. Activity largely confined to the cooler part of the year (October-May), with almost complete cessation of activity during the summer, when animals aestivate. The average home range size for males was found to be almost twice that of females (34.9 ha and 15.7 ha, respectively). One female animal has lived in the author's care since 1970, when it was bought as an adult from a local market; she is thus at least 35-40 years old. A captive female reached maturity when 6 years old; males probably reach maturity at a younger age.
Critically Endangered
A small land tortoise; largest female has a carapace length of 144.2 mm and largest male 130 mm. Carapace strongly domed, smooth; there are 5 vertebral scutes, 4 coastals and 11 marginals; nuchal elongate, protruding anteriorly; supracaudal is divided or undivided. Posterior marginals form a smooth outline, slightly flared above the hind limbs. Plastron with a flexible hinge between the femorals and abdominals. Head moderate; eyes rather small; beak weakly hooked with a smooth edge. Forelimbs covered anteriorly with 3 longitudinal rows of large, imbricate, pointed, horny scales; hind limbs elephantine. Five claws on forefeet, 4 on hindfeet. Generally dorsum sandy beige, with each scute edged dark (brownish black) anteriorly, scute center plain; limbs and head same basic color, but in some individuals might be pinkish or yellowish. Plastron paler, yellowish with 2 diagnostic, black triangular marks on the abdominal scutes, and usually 2 smaller marks on pectoral scutes. Male smaller than female, with a less domed, more elongate carapace; a long pointed tail, and usually dark markings on the head. Female with short stubby tail.
Former range encompassed parts of the western Mediterranean coastal plain, northern parts of North Sinai and probably parts of the northern Eastern Desert. Buskirk (1985) presented a comprehensive summary of all 19 published locality records of T. kleinmanni from Egypt prior to 1985. The only known recent records from Egypt are as follows: tracks of several animals on Rumeiat Island, Lake Bardawil, in 1985 and again in 2004 (Baha El Din 1994b, Zaranik Protected Area staff); a dead animal found by a local inhabitant at the north end of Wadi El Natrun and presented to A. Riad in 1991; remains of a single animal found in a Brown-necked Raven's Corvus ruficollis nest in a tributary of Wadi Degla, southeast of Cairo (Baha El Din 1992); one animal found with a local person who claimed to have encountered it outside his home at El Teloul, North Sinai (Baha El Din 1994b); one animal found near Bir El Abd in 1993 (Saleh 1997). Most recently in spring 2000 a small population was located in Zaranik Protected Area (Baha El Din and Attum 2000). Five locally collected animals were confiscated from a herder at El Omayed Protected Area (Baha El Din and Attum 2003).
Records from Giza and Damietta listed by Buskirk (1985) are certainly erroneous. The unusually southerly records of Marx (1968) and Baha El Din (1992), from Bir Gindali and Wadi Degla, both involved remains of dead animals, and thus could possibly represent released or escaped animals from nearby Cairo.
Coastal deserts of the southeastern corner of the Mediterranean, extending in a narrow strip from the western Negev, Israel, in the east to the Gulf of Sirt, Libya, in the west. Records from further west in Tripolitania possibly involve introduced animals, as a result of extensive trade of these animals in Libya, as noted by the second authors and indicated by M. El Saghir.
Inhabits fairly arid semi-deserts fringing the Mediterranean coast, possibly reaching as far as 120 km inland at some localities, but largely within 50 km from the coast. It is mostly found in areas between the 50-150 mm isohyets. Populations west of the Nile inhabit a wide range of habitats, from vegetated coastal dunes, to sandy and stony steppe and even hilly country; those east of the Nile are largely associated with vegetated sand dunes, but were also reported from large, well-vegetated wadis. A scientific describes its characteristic habitat in Cyrenaica (Libya) as treeless Artemisia steppe. A recently discovered population in Zaranik Protected Area, North Sinai, was found in sandy interdune plains (in one case on the outskirt of a salt marsh), dominated by Artemisia monosperma and Retama raetam. The vegetation cover ranged between 16% and 51% at 3 localities where the animals were found (comprised of 81%-98% woody plants and 2%-19% annuals).
T. kleinmanni has been subjected to severe pressures throughout its range, which have led to its extirpation from large areas of its former range. In Egypt the species' habitat has been ravaged by severe over-grazing, massive reclamation schemes involving large areas of semi-desert, and intensive coastal development for tourism and urban expansion. In addition vast numbers have been collected for the pet trade in the past. Fairly large numbers still continue to be smuggled from Libya into Egypt. In Israel the small population in the western Negev is at risk from habitat loss and the effects of military exercises.
