South Africa

The Great Tortoise Transect - January 2010

South Africa

Description - we crossed the Orange River (border of Namibia and South Africa), and landed in Namaqualand. We find the incredibly beautiful Namaqualand tent tortoise (Psammobates tentorius trimeni) immediately. As we travel south, we find numerous bowsprit tortoises (Chersina angulata) along the road - dead and alive.

On our way to Cape Town, we find many more species, including: Bushmanland tent tortoises (Psammobates tentorius verroxii), Karoo tent tortoises (Psammobates tentorius tentorius), a parrot-beak tortoise (Homopus areolatus), leopard tortoises (Stigmochelys pardalis), and more...

Namibia South Africa Video

Southern rock agama - Agama atra

Namaqualand tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Maurice Rodrigues with a Namaqualand tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Miye McCullough with a Namaqualand tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Carapace of a Namaqualand tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Plastron of a Namaqualand tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Namaqualand tent tortoises - Psammobates tentorius trimeni

Many-horned adder - Bitis cornuta

Eric Goode with a many-horned adder - Bitis cornuta

Eric Goode with an angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Plastron of an angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Eric Goode and Jennifer Goode with angulated tortoises - Chersina angulata

Angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Eric Goode with Karoo girdled lizards - Cordylus polyzonus

Maurice Rodrigues with a Karoo girdled lizard - Cordylus polyzonus

South African vista

On the road again

Eric Goode filming road kill

Marilyn Goode’s 80th birthday party

Southern speckled padloper - Homopus signatus cafer - no longer considered a valid subspecies

Springbok - Antidorcas marsupialis

Hover fly

Carapace of a Karoo tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius tentorius

Plastron of a Karoo tent tortoise - Psammobates tentorius tentorius

Eric Goode, Jennifer Goode, Ethan Marcopoulos, Marilyn Goode, Maurice Rodrigeus, and Miye McCullough with Karoo Tent Tortoises.

Karoo tent tortoises - Psammobates tentorius tentorius

Eric Goode with Karoo tent tortoises - Psammobates tentorius tentorius

Freshwater crab

Baboon crossing: Chacma baboon - Papio ursinus

Rock hyrax - Procavia capensis

Eric Goode surveying the burned landscape

Regular burns are an integral part of this ecosystem

Lucky leopard tortoise

Eric Goode with this large leopard tortoise

Eric Goode with helmeted turtles - Pelomedusa subrufa

Not-so-lucky leopard tortoise

Southern masked weaver - Ploceus velatus

Tarantula hawk with its prey

Southern double-collared sunbird - Cinnyris chalybeus

Southern masked weaver - Ploceus velatus

Leopard tortoises - Stigmochelys pardalis pardalis

Miye McCullough, Ethan Marcopoulos, Jennifer Goode, Eric Goode, and Marilyn Goode with tortoises

Miye McCullough and Maurice Rodrigues collecting data

Leopard tortoise in the road - Stigmochelys pardalis pardalis

Tortoise crossing

Unfortunately, an all too common sight...

Outside of Cape Town

Eric Goode with an angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Road mortality is high here: angulated tortoise - Chersina angulata

Ostriches + Man

Simons Town

Black girdled lizard - Cordylus niger

Chacma baboon - Papio ursinus

Angulated tortoise crossing the road

South Africa is the only African nation to utilize nuclear energy

African penguins - Spheniscus demersus

Anacampseros lanceolata of Karoo, Namaqualand

Get your Obama haircut! Cape Town, South Africa

Drinking water

Chacma baboon - Papio ursinus

Female parrot-beaked tortoise - Homopus areolatus

Male parrot-beaked tortoise - Homopus areolatus

Eric Goode with a parrot-beaked tortoise - Homopus areolatus

Eric Goode with a geometric tortoise - Psammobates geometricus

Elandsberg Farms Preserve