Asian Giant Tortoise

The Asian forest tortoise, also sold as the Asian giant tortoise, is believed from molecular and morphological studies to be among the most primitive living tortoises. Adults are dark brown or blackish. The hind limbs bear large bony tubercles, with larger conical spurs on the heel and a group of still larger ones on each side of the rear thigh. The largest adults of the northern subspecies, M. e. phayrei, can reach 25 kg in the wild (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is the only tortoise that lays its eggs in an above-ground nest, which the female builds from leaf litter with her front and rear legs; she lays up to 50 eggs deep inside it, then sits on and near the nest and chases away predators and intruders. Plants of the genus Alocasia were the most commonly eaten items in one study. The Reptile Database lists it from Assam and Nagaland in India.