GIANT TORTOISE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22617, 4 January 1937, Page 8

GIANT TORTOISE

NEW EXHIBIT FOR ZOO ARRIVAL FROM SEYCHELLES Weighing about 2801b.. and possessing a shell 36in. long, a giant tortoise from the Seychelles Islands "ill be landed from the steamer Orangcmoor when it berths at King's Wharf this morning. Ihe tortoise is for the Auckland Zoological Gardens and will make an interesting addition to the collection of tortoises already there. It will be placed on view immediately. The giant tortoise is probably the most long-lived ot animals and the new exhibit, although between 40 and .50 years old, is probably less than half grown. When taken to the London Zoo in 1908 a tortoise of the same species weighed 8701b.. while another, which is still kept in the barrackgrounds at Tort Louis. Mauritius, is known to have been fully matured for at least 150 years.

Many years ago the giant tortoise was exterminated in its original home on Aldabra Island, in the Indian Ocean, but specimens were introduced to the Seychelles Islands and kept in a state of semi-domesticity by the planters. In former times even larger land tortoises had a wide distribution and have been found in fossil form in France and India with sheJls 6ft. in length. The tortoises already at the Auckland Zoo are representative of three, species, the snapping turtle, the black Japanese water tortoise and the leopard tortoise.