A pet African Spurred Tortoise (Centrochelys sulcata or Geochelone sulcata, or Grooved Tortoise) eats red hibiscus flowers in a yard in Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii, USA. It is the third largest tortoise in the world and the largest mainland tortoise. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) finds that the African Spurred Tortoise is Vulnerable to extinction due to habitat loss (urbanization and over grazing by domestic livestock), being eaten by nomadic tribes, being used to make longevity potions in Japan, and being captured for the pet trade in Europe and North America. This desert-dwelling tortoise is native to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert from Senegal and Mauritania, east through Mali, Chad, the Sudan and Ethiopia, to Eritrea. Red hibiscus is native to tropical Asia, and is cultivated in Hawaii.
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