The geometric tortoise is naturally restricted to the far south-western corner of the Western Cape Province, South Africa.

[4] The habitat type of geometric tortoise is known as the renosterveld, which is located at the extreme southwestern part of the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

The agriculture utilisation and urban development of the renosterveld are the major factors responsible for the massive decline on the number of tortoises.

These colourful tortoises live only in lowland fynbos and renosterveld vegetation, meaning that their populations are easily isolated by mountains which they cannot cross.

[6] The geometric tortoise's diet consists mainly of the leaves, geophytes, flowers, and shoots of a wide range of indigenous fynbos and renosterveld plant and grass species.

A failure to have the full range of these, and other specific local plant species, means that the geometric tortoise soon dies when taken out of its natural habitat or kept in captivity.

The specific diet, together with climate, humidity and soil differences, are the principal reasons why the species does not survive for long outside of its habitat.

It also means that the geometric tortoise is restricted to south-western Cape alluvial fynbos and shale renosterveld vegetation types.

Food sources tend to have a higher concentration of iron and had lower failure load and tensile strength than non-food plants.

This species is one of the rarest land tortoises in the world, classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

The tortoise is marked as a high priority for the nature preserve, so they continually monitor the population of the animals to track their conservation efforts.

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.