Melli: A feet long yellow feet tortoise weighing approximately 2 kg was discovered yesterday at a remote village under Melli constituency of South Sikkim b villagers.The tortoise was first spotted by Rajen Tamang and Sanjay of the Kuvendey village-15 km from Melli at the river banks in evening,who brought it to their house and reported to area panchayat NB Gurung.
Mr.Gurung reported the find to the forest department but no wildlife official reportedly turned up to further investigate into the matter till yesterday evening.However,same has become a object of the curiosity to the residents of area.
However, The tortoise found seems to be one refered as "Golden Greek".The first point to make is that none of these tortoises arise in Greece. Their actual origin is usually the Middle East (Syria, Lebanon, Israel or Jordan) or North Africa (Tunisia, Libya or Morocco). Tortoises with very similar characteristics also occur in limited areas of Spain, The second point to make is that these ‘Golden Greeks’ are not a single subspecies, or even species. They vary considerably according to geographical origin. Rather, the term ‘Golden Greek’ refers to a shared set of physical characteristics: they tend to be rather small, and they have few dark markings, with a profound, bright yellow ground color. In many cases, the scales of the head and limbs are also brightly marked in yellow or amber. They are certainly very attractive animals.Without exception, these tortoises occur in very hot, dry and arid regions that experience unusually high temperatures during summer.
There is absolutely no doubt that many tortoises adopt a shell and skin coloration that is plainly designed to blend into their natural habitats.
