(light music)
- I was just getting ready to leave for work
and I noticed something pretty big.
In this incubator, this is the only egg that's in here,
we've got a little Bell's hinge-back hatching.
It's only just started to pit.
So hopefully you guys can see this right here.
You see these little pieces of shell?
And it's actually pulsating a little bit
'cause that's the baby's face
right behind that broken shell yhat's breathing.
So he's ticking his or her
very first breath of air right now.
So we're gonna put it back and let it hatch on its own
and hopefully we have a healthy baby.
Oh wow.
- [Woman] Is he out?
- He's not fully out, but look at that.
I got an arm.
So this is day two and the tortoise is slowly,
but surely pushing its way out of the egg.
You see his little face there and the arm
and part of the shell.
And he'll probably be fully out by tonight.
(upbeat music)
Okay. So here we go. This is day four.
This baby should be ready to come outta the incubator now
so that we can get it hydrated and get ready to start life.
I did wanna point out real quick
that this egg has been incubating since November.
That's right. November, 2021.
So here we are. It's now July in two days.
It's June 29th, 2022 and this baby is finally here.
So it's been a long wait.
Temperature's fluctuated a little bit,
but it's hung around 89 degrees with anywhere
between 70 and 85% humidity.
So anybody that may have luck,
maybe these levels will help you out a little bit.
So let's see where we're at.
(light music)
So, as suspected, the baby has fully left the egg,
so it's time for us to intervene.
Okay so, here's the little nugget and here's the egg
that it emerged out of.
Now, I don't know if you could see the date,
but it says right there, 11/28.
November 28th was the day that this egg was laid.
And there were actually three others,
this turned out to be the only one that was fertile.
So, we're gonna get this tortoise its first drink
and talk a little bit about it.
All right.
So, this little tortoise is thoroughly enjoying
its very first drink.
And it's gonna actually help it to straighten out
because in the shell,
these things are folded in half almost
and they kind of come out misshapen looking,
but usually they start to swell out
and getting some water in them
is gonna help them get to that point.
The reason that this is a big deal
is because this is the first known hatching
in the United States of America
of a true Bell's hinge-back tortoise Kinixys belliana.
So how do we know that this is the very first time
that this has happened in the United States?
Well, credible sources have confirmed
that over the course of time as the hinge-back tortoises,
which are comprised of several different species,
have been imported into our country and other countries
from their native land of Africa,
there was never actually true Kinixys belliana,
which is the Bell's hinge-back tortoise imported here
that we know of.
For years and years, people were breeding what they thought
was the Bell's hinge-back and they were even calling it
the Western Bell's hinge-back.
That animal, which was originally taxonomically called
Kinixys belliana noguyei,
has now been promoted to full species rank
like the other hinge-backs.
And it's Kinixys noguyei.
It is not belliana whatsoever.
It is not a Bell's hinge-back.
All those years, people thought that they were breeding this
but they were breeding noguyei.
And the one main trait,
'cause we're not gonna go nuts here
about identifying hinge-back tortoises,
is that the noguyei, the Western hinge-back,
has four claws on the feet as opposed to five,
which is what true belliana have.
There are some other differences as well,
but you can use the Kinixys Cooperative webpages
and social media handles to really get a handle
on just how to identify these animals properly.
So to sum it up, for a long, long time,
people thought that they were reproducing
true Bell's hinge-back tortoises,
but they actually were not.
Now, I don't know how that goes in other countries,
but at least here in the United States
most sources have confirmed that
and there are no known captive bread,
which means born in captivity,
true Bell's hinge-back tortoises at all.
This is supposedly the very first time
that this has occurred.
That's why this is such a big deal.
Now, if you know different out there,
please feel free to let us know in the comments.
This is not a competition.
The more true captive bread,
actual belliana out there is a huge deal.
And everybody involved in trying to preserve these animals
in their purest form
would love to know if there are more out there.
(playful music)
So, if true Bell's hinge-backs have never been in the USA,
then how did this happen?
Well, in recent years it finally did happen.
There are a lot of legalities involved
and like a lot of tortoises that are ripped out of the wild,
they get sent over here in droves.
Well, we ended up with a group
that someone did not wanna care for anymore.
And for some reason, they thrived.
For the vast majority of people
that were trying to keep these poor things alive,
it was just failure after failure.
The animals were dying from unknown causes, weird diseases,
viral infections, the whole thing,
it was just a complete mess.
And everyone thought that the same thing was going to happen
to the small group of adults that we ended up with.
Well, there's nothing special about us folks
and I will try to go over a couple reasons why
I think they may have survived, but the adults did survive.
And one female laid three eggs in November.
So, they got so comfortable and so adjusted to life here
that they ended up really doing well
and actually reproducing.
There was so much breeding going on.
It was like every time we turned around,
the males were breeding the females
and they were thriving as a group.
And what we did was we gave them a dry season indoors.
We kept them very dry for the winter and then come spring,
we moved them outside into a very big,
well planted pen where there was an area that would pool.
And let me tell you, we do a lot with box turtles.
If you follow our channel and you follow any of our pages,
you know that we do a lot with box turtles.
Well, these things were no different than box turtles
when it came to rain.
When the skies would open up, the tortoises would come out.
They would walk tall,
they would take full advantage of the rain,
they would wade in the puddles, drink profusely, breed,
eat even more than the usually were.
And it really seemed to be some kind of trigger.
So, if you're trying to work with these animals,
maybe that's a takeaway for you.
If you can't give them actual rain,
maybe try to simulate it.
The wet and then dry season may help too.
African species of tortoises
go through different kinds of periods
during their active season and even dormant seasons
then say a Testudo or a Hermann's
or a Russian or a Greek tortoise, for example.
So, between the wet and dry seasons
we provide them with the amount of food we were giving them,
they were eating a Missouri tortoise diet.
Various greens, mushrooms.
They did not seem to like too much protein
and go after earth worms like a noguyei would
or some of the other hinge-backs.
And just basically, being hands off with them,
we would rarely handle them
and just let them do their thing.
When we brought them back inside last fall, they laid eggs.
And so, this little one who we've decided to name Jabari,
which in Swahili means brave one, is here.
And even though it could have had two other siblings,
those other eggs just turned out to be infertile.
So, hey, this is one big leap for this species.
And I know a lot of people are excited about it.
We are over the moon about it.
We're also very tired.
Again, this thing has been incubating since November.
So, now it's time to start planning
this little tortoise's future.
So what is the Bell's hinge-back Kinixys belliana?
Well, it's a medium-sized tortoise
that comes from central Africa
and it develops a hinge on the carapace
and not on the plastron like a box turtle would.
It's gonna get that hinge right back here.
It's much easier to see in adults.
Right now there's really not much going on.
And this tortoise still has to kind of unfold a little bit,
still kind of wacky-shaped.
So for now, while Jabari is straightening out
and just really kind of start getting his footing
or her footing, we're going to keep the animal
inside an incubator in that green container
on clean, moist paper towels.
And probably within a week to 10 days,
the tortoise will start eating its first meals.
Right now, it's just fully absorbed its yolk sack.
And if you know anything
about hatching turtles and tortoises,
they basically live off that yolk sack
that they've absorbed through their belly button
for the first few days to week or so of life.
Once he or she is ready to start eating,
we're gonna offer the appropriate diet.
A nice mixture of greens, mushrooms, Missouri diet,
all kinds of things that hinge-backs should eat.
Including some multivitamin and calcium
to start getting some size because as you can see,
Jabari is very, very tiny right now.
One of the most important things right off the bat
is gonna be that precious moisture and humidity
like all baby tortoises require.
When tortoises are this young, they know they're vulnerable,
so they stay hidden.
And they're forcing themselves into a precious,
humid micro-climate, sometimes 90% of the time or more.
And that's where they start to absorb
all that beneficial moisture in the air
and in the substrate.
And of course they drink a lot
and that helps them to grow smoothly and of course properly.
So, we have to make sure we can offer Jabari
pretty much a constant supply of that.
So that we can get Jabari out of this fragile stage,
not too quickly 'cause you don't wanna
rush the growth of tortoises,
but we of course want to see him or her
start to put on growth.
And also, color is gonna come in.
Right now Jabari is just this beautiful caramel color,
almost kind of solid colored.
But as he or she ages,
the shell will darken to either a dark brown or black
and eventually beautiful striations or blotches
of yellow or white will form on the shell.
And some of these Bell's hinge-backs
are absolutely breathtaking when you look at them.
Jabari's mother and father are absolutely stunning examples
of the species.
And kind of like pancake tortoises, no two are the same.
And when they're in their natural habitat,
you almost don't notice them at all.
But when you put them out in a plain background,
they are as conspicuous as it gets.
So on top of all the appropriate housing
and feeding and hydration for Jabari,
one other thing is biosecurity.
So you probably notice if you watch our videos frequently,
we're not in our yard and we're not in our nature room.
We are in our house.
We don't house any other reptiles in this house.
The only animals in here are our dogs
and we are going to keep Jabari in the house
so that he or she is fully biosecure.
We have a lot of animals in our nature room.
They are all healthy, but you never know.
And because this animal is the first of its kind
in the United States to be born,
we wanna make sure that everything goes smoothly
and that we get Jabari out of this super fragile stage.
Because even though Jabari is here,
is fully formed and is appearing to be a healthy tortoise.
we have absolutely no idea what the next few days,
weeks, months, or even year is gonna be like.
Hopefully everything goes well.
And of course, we're gonna keep you guys updated.
There'll be plenty of posts
about Jabari on our social media platforms.
And we will do follow ups in our YouTube videos.
Don't forget that we're posting Thursdays and Sundays now.
And folks, if you really wanna learn a lot
about the Kinixys genus and hinge-back tortoises,
make sure you visit the Kinixys Cooperative
and all the work that they're doing
to keep these animals fully pure and preserved
and around for a long time.
Because this isn't a genus of tortoises
that's getting a lot of attention
as other species like radiated tortoises
and Hermann's tortoises and box turtles.
They are kind of a ghost to an extent,
but they are every bit deserving of all the attention
that all the other species get.
And let me tell you,
this is something that's really special.
Again, Jabari is the first known
United States of America hatching of a Kinixys belliana,
true Bell's hinge-back tortoise.
And again, if you know anything different
and you know there are more out there,
we wanna know and so does everybody else involved
with this amazing group of tortoises.
(light music)