With the alias of grassland tortoise, it is a member of the Testudinidae family of Testudoformes order. Its Latin scientific name is Testudo horsfieldi, and the English name is Horsfield's Tortise.
It spreads in inland grassland regions. Its carapace is 12 to 16 centimeters in length and 10 to 14 centimeters in width. The head and the four limbs are yellow. It has a small head with symmetrical scutes on the top. The centre of the scutel is in brownish black while the fringes are yellow with concentric rings. It has four claws in the front of the four limbs, with no web between toes. It has hard scutes on forearms and shin and a cluster of cone-shaped scutes behind the thigh.
Horsfield's Tortise dwells in hilly land of yellow soil at an altitude of 700 to 1,000 meters. It often settles down in valleys of shady slope with abundant artemisia and grass, moist soil and plenty of spiral shells, usually hiding in caves on cloudy days or at night. It feeds on fleshy leaves and fruits of plants, fond of drinking water. The mating period is from April to May, with 2 to 4 eggs each breeding. The eggs are white and oval-shaped. Its incubation period is more or less 60 days. After breaking the egg shells, the young tortoise will remain in the soil until next spring when it climbs out for moving around. It will enter caves for estivation in the last ten days of July. The cave for dormancy is rather deep, which is often dug out in sunny slope.
Horsfield's Tortise is only distributed in Huocheng County of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
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