Testudo marginata
In 3 days >90%
The marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata) is a species of tortoise in the family Testudinidae. The species is endemic to Greece, Italy, and the Balkans in Southern Europe. It is the largest European tortoise. The marginated tortoise is herbivorous, and brumates for the winter.
The marginated tortoise was formally described by German naturalist Johann David Schoepff in 1789; its specific epithet marginata is a straightforward derivation from the Latin term for 'marginated'. The nominate subspecies is the Greek marginated tortoise, Testudo marginata marginata. Three additional subspecies of marginated tortoises have been named:
The Sardinian marginated tortoise (T. m. sarda) is the name usually used to separate the population on the island of Sardinia. These tortoises have less strongly bent tiles in the posterior of their carapaces, and the posterior of the carapace is almost smooth compared with the saw-like T. m. marginata. Clearly distinct according to morphology and entirely allopatric, it cannot be distinguished by mtDNA cytochrome b and nDNA ISSR sequence analysis. Lineage sorting has not occurred to a considerable degree; consequently, the more geographically... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Athens | 🇬🇷 Greece |
No species of the same family or order lives in Athens, so these are its closest relatives here: other reptiles.
Very likely
About 90% of wildlife watchers report a Marginated Tortoise sighting in Athens on a given day, based on 1,002 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the most-seen of the 8 reptiles we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March–June and August–November
In those months about 90% of wildlife watchers report a Marginated Tortoise in Athens on a given day, against about 80% in July and December–February, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Marginated Tortoise sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Athens, in our data
Athens is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Marginated Tortoise sightings: about 90% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Marginated Tortoise is recorded against all the reptiles logged in Athens (1,002 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
