Table 1.
Summary of measurement methods for body condition assessment in tortoises used in the present study.
Table 2.
Hermann’s Tortoises measured in the present study, divided according to the respective criteria.
Fig 1.
Hermann’s Tortoise with marked measurement points.
Straight carapace length (from nuchal notch to caudal notch) demonstrated with the red line, carapace height and width (at the level of the third vertebral scute) demonstrated with the blue line and curved carapace and plastron circumference demonstrated with the green line.
Table 3.
Body condition scoring sheet for Hermann’s Tortoises (Testudo hermanni) used in the present study.
Fig 2.
Adult Hermann’s Tortoises with different body condition scores (BCS).
From left to right: BCS 2.0, BCS 2.5, BCS 3.0, BCS 4.0, BCS 4.5. Notice the deep withdrawal into the shell (arrow) and the muscle atrophy in the forelimbs (circle) of the tortoise in poor condition (BCS 2.0), compared to the tissue bulk around the neck and shoulders (arrow) and prominent muscle mass in the forelimbs (circle) of the tortoise in high condition (BCS 4.5).
Fig 3.
Adult Hermann’s Tortoises with different body condition scores (BCS).
Tortoises in poor (left, BCS 2.0), good (center, BCS 3.0) and high (right, BCS 4.5) condition showing the difference in tissue bulk around the axillar region between these condition categories (circle).
Table 4.
Strength of correlation between BCS and measurement methods ranging from strongest to weakest (from left to right).
Fig 4.
Data visualization in the spearman correlation matrix of the total population.
Spearman correlation coefficient rho is indicated in gray (total population), pink (Testudo hermanni boettgeri) and blue numbers (Testudo hermanni hermanni), p-values are indicated by stars: * = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.001.
Fig 5.
Violin plots of variance distribution of weight in male and female German tortoises.
Individual data points are distributed as colored dots within each category, with the box indicating the middle half of the data set and the width of the box expanding with the number of data points. The median values are shown as red dots.
Fig 6.
Violin plots of variance distribution of carapace length in male and female German tortoises.
Individual data points are distributed as colored dots within each category, with the box indicating the middle half of the data set and the width of the box expanding with the number of data points. The mean values are shown as red dots. This effect was also seen in French tortoises, where female tortoises were significantly heavier (females: mean 816.53 ± 192.24g, males: mean 423.69 ± 111.08g) longer (females: median 15,96 ± 1,57cm males: median 13.05 ± 1.51cm), broader (female: median 11.84 ± 0.95cm, males: median 10.26 ± 1.04cm) and higher (female: median 8.13 ± 0.59cm, males: median 6.58 ± 0.53cm) than their male counterparts (Figs 7 and 8).
Fig 7.
Violin plots of variance distribution of weight in male and female French tortoises.
Individual data points are distributed as colored dots within each category, with the box indicating the middle half of the data set and the width of the box expanding with the number of data points. The mean values are shown as red dots.
Fig 8.
Violin plots of variance distribution of carapace length in male and female French tortoises.
Individual data points are distributed as colored dots within each category, with the box indicating the middle half of the data set and the width of the box expanding with the number of data points. The median values are shown as red dots.