Reinforcement as a conservation tool – assessing site fidelity and movement of the endangered elongated tortoise Indotestudo elongata (Blyth, 1854)

Based on short-term success indicators for reintroduction studies on reptiles we studied the tortoises’ adaptation to the new environment for five months.

The tortoises successfully settled in the new environment without showing adverse effects regarding their behaviour, condition index (CI) and physical appearance. The annual survival rate was 76%. Based on individual locations collected, we analysed the tortoises’ movement patterns including daily displacement, five-month and seasonal home range sizes using minimum convex polygons (MCPs) and fixed kernel density estimators (KDEs).