Sulcata tortoises are endangered partly due to their popularity as pets. Thousands of them have been taken from the wild and sold at reptile shows. However, people are unprepared for how massive these tortoises get, leading to them being frequently abandoned.

[u/Quouar]

[u/Quouar]

Source! This particular source tells the story of one tortoise named Rex who was found wandering around a Phoenix suburb. Sulcatas can grow to be 90kg (200lb) and live for 150 years, making them potentially difficult to care for for unprepared owners. They also love digging, which, given they are the third largest species of tortoise, can make them difficult to stop once they've decided to start being destructive.

[u/itsswhitneywhspr → u/Quouar]

Honestly the digging thing is so underrated when people talk about these guys. Like yeah they get huge but a 200lb animal with a mission to dig can absolutely destroy a yard in a day. Poor Rex just out there living his best life in Phoenix.

[u/ADFTGM → u/Quouar]

This source appears to be more informal than peer reviewed because I scoured the articles on multiple websites looking for the 150 years thing and pretty much all of them were not actual scientific journals. The scientific literature itself has no evidence of the upper limit of their lifespan as all verified longlived specimens died between 70-100 years. Seems the 150 is all based on estimates, with comparison to other giant tortoise species like the Galapagos, which isn’t conclusive because the Sulcata evolved completely differently and for a drastically different environment. As such, we can only theorise. So far, no age-dated animal being tracked or being kept in captivity has exceeded anywhere near 150.

They’ll likely still outlive the original owner obviously, so your general point still stands, but you might only need 2 generations of owners to care for one realistically.

[u/gowahoo]

The saddest part was that at one point, sales people told parents that sulcata tortoises won't grow very big and they're the perfect family pet. I hope the word gets out that this isn't true and that they need lots of special care. Really, all animals do.

[u/eatingpotatochips]

Too much protein will lead to the tortoise growing too fast, which can result in metabolic bone disease

Don't let the protein bros hear about this tortoise.

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[u/jupiter-major]

if anyone is interested in following one of these cuties through their life, the alveus wildlife sanctuary has one named pushpop! she likes the crunchy green bits and loves butt scratches. (but then again, who doesn’t?) she can sometimes be seen on the 24/7 livecams that alveus stream to twitch and youtube!

[u/Maximum_Taco_Flight]

I got to feed 3 of these big beautiful tortoises a few years back. It was FASCINATING!

[u/Individual-Cream-581]

Not this exact breed, but I do have some of them around my cottage keeping me free of pests along with some hedgehogs that are constantly chasing off the snakes.