Tent tortoise Tent tortoise The tent tortoise ("Psammobates tentorius") is a species of tortoise and one of three members of the genus, "Psammobates". Known locally as the Karoo tent tortoise, this highly variable species is found in the Karoo and semi-desert regions of Southern Africa. The Karoo tent tortoise occurs at very low densities throughout the Karoo and other semi-desert areas of southern Africa, extending from central Namibia almost to the southern coast of South Africa. Within this range, its population is very sparse and individuals are normally rare and widely separated. The species is also increasingly rare due to habitat destruction
Karoo the mountains, but are very secretive, so are rarely seen. Many of the animals that formerly inhabited the Karoo in large numbers, including lions, have been reintroduced to the area in nature reserves and game farms. As in the Great Karoo, antelope and other big game inhabited the Little Karoo in the past. However, the dominant zebra was not the quagga, but the Cape mountain zebra, ("Equus zebra zebra") which is adapted for life on rugged, mountainous terrain. Their hooves are harder and faster-growing than those of Burchell’s zebra ("Equus quagga burchellii"), which lives on the plains. The two species