Going wild for a wild Tortoise
Can you see it? We’re out at a LIPU nature reserve at Castel di Guido. We’re the only ones here. It’s a mixture of ancient Cork Oak forest with some Broadleaved Oak and a few areas of conifer plantation. I spotted it right away.
![Hermann's Tortoise - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hermanns-Tortoise-The-Hall-of-Einar-8496-544x725.jpg)
A Tortoise! I’ve found a real, live, wild Tortoise!
![Hermann's Tortoise - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hermanns-Tortoise-The-Hall-of-Einar-8499-544x725.jpg)
It’s quietly munching in the grass when we approach it.
![Hermann's Tortoise - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hermanns-Tortoise-The-Hall-of-Einar-8471-725x544.jpg)
I check the pattern on its back and think it must be a Hermann’s Tortoise, Testudo hermanni.
![Hermann's Tortoise - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hermanns-Tortoise-The-Hall-of-Einar-8474-725x725.jpg)
Soon it’ll be digging a safe depression in the earth and bedding down for winter so it can wake in spring. They can sleep for four to five months at a time.
![Hermann's Tortoise - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Hermanns-Tortoise-The-Hall-of-Einar-2-725x725.jpg)
I wish I was a tortoise.