African spurred tortoise
Amazing fact
Other wildlife reuse burrows that African spurred tortoises have abandoned.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Other wildlife reuse burrows that African spurred tortoises have abandoned.
THE REAL WORLD
The real African spurred tortoise
- Scientific name
- Centrochelys sulcata
- Japanese name
- ケヅメリクガメ
- Group
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Testudines
- Family
- Testudinidae
- Genus
- Centrochelys
Where the name “African spurred tortoise” comes from
The scientific name sulcata means “furrow” in Latin, referring to the grooves between its shell plates.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife AllianceA tortoise of central Africa; in the wild it eats grasses, flowers, weeds and cacti.
Large scales stick out at the base of its hind legs and look like spurs, which is how it got its Japanese name (kezume means 'spur').
During the heat of the day it rests in deep burrows that it digs itself, escaping the desert heat.
How the African spurred tortoise lives
It leaves its burrow to forage at dawn and dusk. It warms its body in the morning sun after the chill of night. It is especially active during the rainy season. During breeding, males ram each other in attempts to overturn their rivals.
San Diego Zoo Wildlife AllianceBasic data
- Range
- Central Africa
Where the African spurred tortoise has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ケヅメリクガメ
- 简体中文
- 苏卡达象龟
- 繁體中文
- 蘇卡達象龜
- 한국어
- 술카타거북
- Français
- Tortue sillonnée
- Deutsch
- Spornschildkröte
- Português (Brasil)
- Tartaruga-de-esporas-africana
- Italiano
- Testuggine africana
- العربية
- سلحفاة سودانية
- Tiếng Việt
- Geochelone sulcata
- Русский
- Шпороносная черепаха
- ไทย
- เต่าซูลคาต้า
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — ケヅメリクガメChecked: 2026-11-03
- San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — African Spurred TortoiseChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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