The Toledo Zoo’s historic Reptile House is now home to three baby Galapagos tortoises.
The trio of tiny tortoises, which are on exhibit today, arrived at the zoo in November from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, where they were bred and hatched. They spent the last four months in quarantine.
“They are doing very, very well,” R. Andrew Odum, curator of herpetology, said.
They are the much younger and much smaller counterparts to Emerson, the wild-born Galapagos tortoise estimated at 100 years old that arrived in Toledo from the San Diego Zoo in August. The 442-pound Emerson is on exhibit in the zoo’s historic Ziems Conservatory.
“Emerson is like a tank,” Jeff Sailer, the zoo’s executive director, said. “These guys are little bitty, but they have a lot of personality.”
The little tortoises are all of a subspecies from Darwin Volcano on Isabela Island, the largest island in the Galapagos archipelago off the coast of Ecuador. Two were hatched in 2013, the other in 2012. Their shells are only about 4 to 5 inches across, and while they have grown since their arrival in Toledo, they all still weigh less than a pound.
The tortoises wasted no time once placed gently inside their new exhibit, which features a basking area in the center. They toddled around on the sandy foundation and began exploring immediately.
“Little tortoises are energetic,” Mr. Odum said. “They move around and they like to climb.”
Exercise is crucial to their proper development so they can support their own weight as they grow. Their enclosure is outfitted with logs and rocks for them to climb on to help their legs grow strong.
They quickly found and began munching on the aloe plants inside. While aloe won’t hurt them if ingested, the plants may have to be removed and replaced with something they won’t or can’t eat. Mr. Odum said overfeeding tortoises causes them to grow too quickly and creates other medical problems that can ultimately lead to an early death.
“In the wild, they don’t get that much to eat. It’s seasonal,” he said. “We’re not pushing them. ... They are weighed almost weekly.”
The babies are presumed to be females, though their gender will not be confirmed until they are at least 15 years old. Galapagos tortoises' gender, like many reptiles, is determined by subtle differences in the temperature at which eggs are incubated. The zoo’s three babies were incubated at a temperature that should produce females.
Though they won’t be sexually mature for 20 to 30 years, the Toledo Zoo plans to also acquire a male of about the same age and build a breeding program with the tortoises. Experts estimate Galapagos tortoises can live for 150 to 200 years on average.
“You’re talking about animals that are 1 or 2 years old now and could easily have 150 years here,” Mr. Sailer said. “It’s pretty neat to think of an animal that could be here for generations. It’s just incredible to think of what they grow into.”
An estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Galapagos tortoises remain on the islands named for them, which are renown for their biodiversity and inspired Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Experts estimate whalers and pirates removed 100,000 to 200,000 tortoises from the islands for their meat within a span of about 50 years in the 1800s, and four of the 14 subspecies of tortoises are extinct.
The islands are now protected, but the tortoises still face a constant threat in the form of invasive species that that either prey on the eggs or hatchlings or compete with the tortoises for resources. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources lists the species as vulnerable.
Contact Alexandra Mester: amester@theblade.com, 419-724-6066, or on Twitter @AlexMesterBlade.
First Published March 13, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
