It's a Little Lizard Doughnut!

When it rolls into an armadillo-y shape, it looks like a spiky lizard doughnut!

Meet the armadillo girdled lizard (Ouroborus cataphractus) from South Africa! When this cute critter feels upset, it rolls itself into a ball and bites its tail to hold that way. I’m not sure if it rolls around or not…but if so, YAY!

In 2011, it was moved into a separate genus of its own—Ouroborus—from another girdled lizard genus, Cordylus. Another species of lizard, the giant girdled lizard, was also given a new binomial name. J.R.R. Tolkien lovers will love this one: Smaug giganteus!

Armadillo girdled lizards are commonly sold as pets. They are very easy to breed in captivity, but their numbers are decreasing in the wild from collection. They can live up to 25 years in captivity.

It eats small invertebrates, such as spiders and termites, but also some plant material.

I WANT ONE! I’d want one even more if it didn’t harm the environment. :,(

The Turtle that Looks like a Torture Device! O_O

This odd turtle is called the St. Catherine’s wheel turtle (Heosemys spinosus), also known as the cogs-wheel turtle and the spiny turtle. The adult turtles don’t have the spines. (NO!) Why is it called a St. Catherine’s wheel turtle?

KINGDOM OF CREATURES STORY TIME!!

St. Catherine of Alexandria (282 – 305 AD) lived in Alexandria, Egypt. One of her acquaintences was the emperor of Rome, Maxentius, who was persecuting Catholics. She told him to stop at once, and you know what? He sentenced her to be tied to a wheel with knives on it, and have the wheel spun so she got cut up. It was a very sad death that she did not deserve at all, but thankfully she is a saint. Her feast day is November 25.

Her wheel looks kind of like this similar torture device at a museum:

Maxentius = Biggest jerk in history besides King Henry VIII.

Anyway, this turtle is an Asian species, ranging in Thailand, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

There have been three successful captive incubations of the St. Catherine’s wheel turtle’s eggs, taking up to 145 days to hatch. These bizarrely cute turtles are completely herbivorous in nature, though many captive species eat meat.

It Can't Even Eat Grapes!

How does Ai does dis?

These are all Kleinmann’s elf tortoises (Pseudotestudo leithii), so small and cute that it can hardly eat a grape and also it’s critically endangered and can go extinct in the wild any day now! Yay!

“Yay”!? *Slaps self in face.*

I would seriously die a thousand deaths if the Kleinmann’s elf tortoise went extinct. LOOK at it! At just 10 centimeters long, this is the tiniest tortoise that has ever lived in the Northern Hemisphere. They range in color from dark brown to pale golden to pink (yay!) to ivory to a dull yellow (ugh!).

The strangest thing about Kleinmann’s elf tortoises is that…they have a mating song. It sounds like a mourning dove (Zenaida macroura)—coo-OO, oo-oo-oo—gradually fading away depressingly. :(

When it’s scared it hides in its shell ^_^ I love these things. They deserve millions of huggles. :3