On June 23rd we had a huge amout of rain fall in a 20 minute period. I decided to go out and check the African tortoises, Sultan and Swag. They are outdoors in the summer months but sometimes the Leopard tortoise, Swag, the smaller one with the leopard pattern on his shell, doesn’t seek shelter when it cools off quickly. I’m always checking the weather and making sure he is in the heated shelter at night.

I was intrigued by what I found. As you can see from the video, the boys were both near, or in, a puddle that had formed where the water runs off the roof or their barn. Swag was in the puddle and Sultan, the Sulcata tortoise, was obviously very curious about the commotion caused by the sudden storm, and was standing close by.

Sulcata’s natural habitat is very dry. They live in the desert fringes and savanna’s of North African. They are found on the southern edges of the Sarah desert where the days can be extremely hot and the nights are cold. It rains very seldomly and standing water is usually not available! They get most of their water from what they eat, greens and grasses.

We have a water trough but I have never seen Sultan drink from it. I finally got to see him drink. Basically at one point in the video he is on the edge of the puddle digging in the puddle. I presume he was using his instinct. It was raining and a rare chance for a drink so he was digging so that the water would pool. You will see after some digging he starts to drink.

Swag, the leopard tortoises natural habitat would be similar to Sultans but Leopards are found in south and east Africa. I see Swag often sitting in the water trough. They are both more active when their is water close by.