Penza, 18 February 2015. PenzaNews. The African spurred tortoise couple has laid eggs in the Penza zoo that is currently undergoing reconstruction.

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The city landmark is one of the few Russian zoos to have these rare animals, with no more than 30 spread all over the country.

The spurred tortoises rarely lay eggs in captivity. They mate throughout the year, but lay eggs only from July to August, so a bundle of eggs appearing in February was an unexpected and pleasant surprise for the Penza zoologists.

“The zoo is currently under reconstruction, and we have a troubling lack of winter enclosures. The tortoises were moved to the temporary administration building on Kuybysheva street, 4B, along with other warm-requiring animals. We made everything in our hands to create comfortable conditions for them, and they began mating in earnest,” a representative of the Penza zoo informed PenzaNews agency.

He explained that tortoises in the wild dig several holes searching for a suitable location, then burrow their eggs into wet sand to create suitable incubation conditions.

“Unfortunately, the female tortoise could not create a necessary hole for the eggs. She laid five of them, round and white, approximately 45 millimeters in diameter, into straw litter, but, sadly, squashed one of them by accident. The zoologists have transferred the remaining ones into the incubation zone,” the speaker said.

The eggs require 70-80% humidity and air temperature of 30…32 degrees Celsius in order to hatch, he added.

“If everything is successful, the small tortoises will appear in 99–103 days,” added he zoo speaker.