conservation efforts made to help this species. The population is documented annually. These counts are taken by officials walking through the preserve and hand-counting the number of tortoises they see. Other conservation efforts are taking place in order to insure the survival of the species. These efforts include studying the types of food that the geometric tortoise eats in order to understand their environmental needs, and the problems with the non-native plant species. Public support for government run conservation efforts is very low, as a result private conservation efforts have become more prevalent as a way of supplementing the limited funding that the government has for conservation efforts. This is known as wildlife ranching, and it allows for large areas of land home to be preserved at minimal expense to the government. References Other sources Library.thinkquest.org entry Baard, E. H. W. 1989. The Ecology and Conservation Status of the Geometric Tortoise Psammobates geometricus: Preliminary Results Jour. Herp. Ass. Afr. (36): 72-72 Baard, E. H. W. 1991. A Review of the Taxonomic History of and some Literature on the Geometric Tortoise, Psammobates geometricus Jour. Herp. Ass. Afr. (39): 8-12 Baard, E. H. W. 1995. Growth, age at maturity and sexual dimorphism in the geometric tortoise, Psammobates geometricus Jour. Herp. Ass. Afr. (44): 10-15 Baard, E. H. W.; Mouton, P. L. N. 1993. A Hypothesis Explaining the Enigmatic Distribution of the Geometric Tortoise, Psammobates geometricus, in South Africa Herpetological Journal 3 (2): 65-67 Duméril, A. M. C., and G. Bibron. 1835. Erpétologie Générale ou Histoire Naturelle Complète des Reptiles, Vol. 2. Librairie Encyclopédique de Roret, Paris, iv + 680 p. Ernst, C. H. and Barbour,R. W. 1989. Turtles of the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C. - London Hoogmoed, M. S., and C. R. Crumly. 1984. Land tortoise types in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Histoire with comments on nomenclature and systematics (Reptilia: Testudines: Testudinidae). Zool. Meded. 58(15): 241–259. Iverson, J.B. 1986. A Checklist with Distribution Maps of the Turtles of the World. Paust Printing, Richmond, Indiana. viii + 282 pp. Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema naturæ per regna tria naturæ, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii, Holmiæ. 10th Edition: 824 pp. Piso, W. 1658. Historiae Naturalis and Medicae Indiae Occidentalis. Libri Quinque. pp. 105–106. In: W. Piso. De Indiae Utriusque re Naturali et Medica. Libri Quatordecim, Amstelaedami. 327 pp. Rau, R. 1971.