As a long-lived, low-turnover species, with limited dispersal abilities, tortoises are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and fragmentation (Pough 2004).
The geographic distribution of Hermann’s tortoise in Romania was found to be strongly affected by conversions of land cover from traditional-use semi-natural habitats to intensively managed
agricultural lands (Rozylowicz and Dobre 2010).
Such effects are prevalent at the eastern distribution limit of Hermann’s tortoise in Romania, where bioclimatic envelope models suggest that suitable climate space extends farther east from the current area of occurrence (Rozylowicz 2008).