Animal Behavior: Sulcatas are very aggressive towards each other. This aggression starts from the time they hatch. Ramming into each other and attempts to flip each other over are common behaviors by males. Sulcatas like to burrow and are well adapted at doing it. They are very strong and active tortoises and when the weather gets too hot or too cold for them, they retreat to a burrow. This also helps them to avoid dehydration, since they depend mainly on metabolic water and the moisture in food for water. They will stay in their burrow for hours and if mud is available, they will flip it onto their backs. When temperatures reach more than 40 C, they salivate and smear the saliva on their forearms to help with cooling. They are most active at dusk or dawn and generally bask in the morning to raise their body temperature after the chill of the night.

Eating Habits: Geochelone sulcata is a vegetarian. It relies on succulent plants for food and much of its water. In captivity, it will eat a variety of grasses, lettuce, berseem, and morning-glory leaves.

Range: The African spurred tortoise (Geochelone sulcata) occurs along the southern edge of the Sahara, from Senegal and Mauritania east through Mali, Niger, Chad, the Sudan, Ethiopia, along the Red Sea in Eritrea.

Conservation Efforts: Many populations of G. sulcata are rapidly disappearing, especially in Mali, Chad, Niger, and Ethiopia. In Senegal there are still limited populations in the north and north-east, but there is a lot of overgrazing and desertification here too that is wiping this tortoise out.

Animal Facts: The Sulcata tortoise lives in hot, arid environments of the Sahelian type. These areas range from desert fringes to dry savannahs. Standing water is only around for limited amounts of time. Much of it's range has been disturbed by urbanisation, domestic animal grazing, and desertification.