The barren terrain, dotted with shriveled desert shrubs, offers thin pickings for the Egyptian Tortoise, which faces extinction in the wild. People are collecting and trading them as pets. Overgrazing and the expansion of agriculture and tourism threaten their existence and their natural habitat in the coastal deserts of Egypt, Eastern Libya and Israel's western Negev is being destroyed. He said a thorough survey in Egypt in 1994 had failed to locate any wild tortoises at all. They are very ancient animals and haven't changed much over the years, which makes them more susceptible to problems.
Females are larger than males.
It is found in both sandy and fairly rocky habitats and its light brown color blends in with the local soil color. The eggs hatch in summer or early autumn. In 1996, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature placed the Egyptian Tortoise on a list of threatened animals. Egyptian law bans the sale, purchase and transporting of the species without permits but implementation is difficult. In January 1997, police cracked down on illegal traders selling hundreds of tortoises collected from Libya in the Tunsi pet market in central Cairo.