The species is the largest tortoise that lives on a continent rather than an island, with a straight carapace length that can exceed eighty centimetres and mass in the region of seventy to a hundred kilograms. Growth is slow in the sense that maturity takes many years, but a hatchling reaches inconvenient size well within a decade.
In the Sahel that bulk is paired with excavation. Sulcatas dig burrows several metres long and can go deeper still, retreating into stable humidity while surface temperatures climb. Captives dig too, and readily go under fences, foundations and irrigation lines.
The wild population is the part usually left out. Habitat loss, drought and collection for food and the pet trade have thinned Sahel populations severely, so an abundant captive supply coexists with a native range in retreat.