All animals

Where is the sulcata tortoise legal?

Centrochelys sulcata. Restricted in 1 of the 5 jurisdictions checked. Every entry quotes the rule it comes from.

Alabama: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseAlaska: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseArizona: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseArkansas: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseCalifornia: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseColorado: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseConnecticut: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseDelaware: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseFlorida: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseGeorgia: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseHawaii: unclear for sulcata tortoiseIdaho: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseIllinois: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseIndiana: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseIowa: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseKansas: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseKentucky: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseLouisiana: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMaine: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMaryland: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMassachusetts: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMichigan: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMinnesota: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMississippi: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMissouri: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseMontana: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNebraska: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNevada: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNew Hampshire: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNew Jersey: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNew Mexico: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNew York: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNorth Carolina: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseNorth Dakota: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseOhio: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseOklahoma: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseOregon: no restriction found for sulcata tortoisePennsylvania: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseRhode Island: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseSouth Carolina: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseSouth Dakota: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseTennessee: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseTexas: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseUtah: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseVermont: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseVirginia: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseWashington: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseWest Virginia: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseWisconsin: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseWyoming: no restriction found for sulcata tortoiseDistrict of Columbia: no restriction found for sulcata tortoise

Select a state for the rule behind its colour. Alaska, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are drawn out of position so they can be clicked.

What the colours mean

  • BannedNo legal way to keep one, and no permit to apply for.
  • Permit requiredLegal, but you need a permit or licence before the animal arrives.
  • Conditions applyLegal without a permit only if a stated condition is met, such as a generation, a size or an indoor-only rule.
  • Unclear (1)The rule genuinely does not resolve for this animal. Ask the agency before relying on it.
  • No restriction foundNothing in the body of law we read restricts this animal here.

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Every restriction on the sulcata tortoise

1 of the 5 jurisdictions checked restrict this animal in some way. The rest had no rule we could find.

Hawaii

UnclearList of Conditionally Approved Animals, Family Testudinidae
Geochelone (all species in genus)

The list was written when the sulcata was Geochelone sulcata. It has since moved to Centrochelys, which appears nowhere on any Hawaii list, so whether the clearance followed the species through the rename is not something the text answers. Ask the Department of Agriculture.

How this rule works: The list that matters most for pet keepers and the one almost never quoted. Conditional approval means importation and possession are allowed subject to the conditions the Board of Agriculture sets, unlike the restricted list, which is research and exhibition only.

Hawaii Administrative Rules, List of Conditionally Approved Animals (Hawaii Department of Agriculture official PDF) →

For the full write-up, including the states that get reported wrongly, read the sulcata tortoise legal guide.

Past the legal question? See the sulcata tortoise profile.

How to read this

A state with no colour is one where nothing in the law we read restricts that animal. That is not the same as a guarantee: it means no restriction was found in the specific body of law checked for that state, which is recorded alongside each jurisdiction. Cities and counties regularly ban animals their state allows, and several states say so in their own rules.

Hatched grey means the rule genuinely does not resolve. Usually a definition arguably reaches the animal without naming it, and the honest answer is to ask the agency rather than to guess. Those entries are marked unclear on purpose rather than being rounded to a yes or a no.

Every entry links to the regulation it came from. None of this is legal advice, laws change without much notice, and the agency that issues the permit is always the last word. For the federal layer and how state schemes are structured, see the exotic pet legal hub.