lakiere pieter wrote:Very close to Wilpattu national parc. Along an unplaved route close to a little farming community. I asked myself the same question. Is it common here? So I asked the locals about it. They told me they see them sometimes. We don't like to see turtles on our farmland when we just planted crops. They eat the young plants was there answer. We don't like to kill them but often they get killed accidently by fire. A few days later I found a shell from a turtle on farmland. I could see it was burned a
life. What a pity. So I think that specie is only locally common. It was found few hundred meters from the national parc.
I think that, as it is often the case, that the damage tortoises do to the crops is overestimated by the locals. I doubt that they intentionally seek the crops especially with that much other vegetation available and I doubt there is such a big concentration of tortoises in one place that they can do any significant damage. I'm sure invertebrates are far more destructive in this case. It is reassuring that the locals "don't like to kill them" and I hope it is true. As for the fire casualties, yes it's a shame but I wouldn't think that's a major threat to the species. Anyway, you should consider yourself lucky to find this beautiful individual. Good job!