by Rebecca Schlofner

Created on: November 23, 2011

Facts of the Aldabra Tortoise

The Aldabra Tortoise species is one of the longest living species of animal known to man.  Its origins go back centuries into the past and they can also grow into quite a hefty size.  There’s an abundance of interesting facts to learn as well.

The Aldabra, or Giant, Tortoise is native to the Aldabra Islands where it receives its name.  A single tortoise can live to be well over two hundred years old, so it has had the chance to see a lot of this world go by.  All other giant tortoise species that lived around the Indian Ocean have long since passed away into extinction.  They like to live in grassland areas as well as swamps.  Since they like plants you will usually find them in the densest parts of vegetation.

Besides their large size, how can you tell you have an Aldabra Tortoise on your hands?  Their protective shells are dome shaped for best protection against its enemies.  Their necks are long enough that they can stretch out from under their protective shells to reach into the branches of trees for leaves to eat as they are herbivores.  Males can grow to be over one meter long whiles the females are slightly under a meter. Since males are slightly larger than the females they do weigh more as well, coming in at 100 kilograms more.  The flat feet help the Aldabra Tortoise to move along the sandy on their short and squatty legs.

You are likely to see one of these tortoises more so in the morning than the evening.  This is when they head out either alone or in herds to start scavenging for their food and graze.  This is also the coolest part of the day; they don’t like the heat all that much.  In the heat of the day you may find them in an underground burrow they dug or perhaps hiding it out in the swamp to stay cool.  It’s very easy to get close to these critters too, as they are unafraid of human contact.

When it comes to reproduction, you will find around twenty-five eggs per female laid out between February and May in shallow nests, which also makes the eggs vulnerable to prey that includes a very small list, mostly human.  Humans brought along the only real threat to the Aldabra Tortoise with the introduction of domesticated animals such as dogs and goats. Human poachers are the cause of extinction of all the other giant tortoise species that existed in the Aldabra Island region.   The incubation period for the eggs is almost as long as humans – eight months and the female can become impregnated more than once in a year.  The young ones take quite a while to grow to match the length of their lives.

Since the Aldabra Atoll has been declared a World Heritage Site, it is now under protection so that these beautiful creatures can survive even though they are on a list that states they are vulnerable to extinction.  With over 152,000 of the tortoise still living in their original habitat, you can also find herds on the islands of Zanzibar, Mauritius and Rodriguez.  The Aldabra Tortoise therefore has a decent chance at survival so that generations from now we can still cohabitate with them.

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