 Vic
gave an outstanding presentation on the Asian mountain tortoise, Manouria
emys emys and M. e. phayrei. He gave a thorough slide
presentation which told his story of success with this endangered
tortoise. His introduction included a lot of the background
information about the tortoises and the two subspecies. He admitted to
buying them on impulse, but has not regretted it. He mention many
important contribution he has made regarding the behavioral
observations. The one that struck me as fascinating, was the fact that
these tortoises will search for areas that will be in the sunlight in the
morning, and go to that spot to sleep during some winter nights, knowing
that the sun will warm them up first thing in the morning. This
obviously enables them to have more "active" time.
Among the many detailed observations, he added humor along the way.
This presentation would not be complete without the story of how Wayne Hill
played what he called, "The best practical joke I have ever
seen." Here is the "brief" version:  Vic
had been in Miami dealing with the tons of imported turtles from
China. He brought several Manouria back with him. It was
winter and Wayne had better temporary housing for the tortoises available,
so he kept Vic's tortoises for a few weeks. Wayne planted the seed and
told Vic that he thought one of the tortoises was gravid. Vic
disagreed for various reasons. When They were looking at the
tortoises, Vic saw what he thought were freshly layed eggs. While he
was telling Wayne, Wayne walked over and said,"What?", as he
stepped on the eggs. Vic had a cow and was freaking out (probably
hyperventilating). He later found out that they were ping pong
balls. All I have to say is that I wish I was there to see it.
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