Card #062 · Reptiles
Aldabra giant tortoise
Aldabrachelys gigantea
Rare VU · Vulnerable
Field notes
- Classification
- Order Testudines · Family Testudinidae
- Range
- Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles
- Size
- Shell to ~1.2 m (4 ft)
- Weight
- Males ~250 kg (550 lb)
- Lifespan
- Often 100+ yrs
- Diet
- Herbivore
Most Notable
One of the largest and longest-lived animals on Earth: some are thought to top 150 years. Almost the entire wild species, around 100,000 tortoises, lives on a single remote coral atoll.
It grazes like a slow, scaly lawnmower, and where enough tortoises feed together they crop a dense low sward known as "tortoise turf," a plant community found nowhere else. With almost no fresh water on the atoll, it draws nearly all its moisture from the plants it eats.
It is one of only two kinds of giant tortoise left on Earth, the other being the giant tortoises of the Galapagos; both survived on remote islands that had no large predators.
Giant tortoises are among the longest-lived of all animals; a related giant tortoise named Jonathan, living on Saint Helena, has been documented alive since at least 1882.
To beat the tropical heat it feeds in the cool of the morning, then rests in shade or wallows in mud and pools, since a large tortoise caught overheating in the sun can die.
Range: Endemic to Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean.