Scratches Are Loved By Everyone! Including This Massive Tortoise

Name: Scratches Are Loved By Everyone! Including This Massive Tortoise
Uploaded: 2024-11-25T19:16:42+00:00
Duration: 4 min 6 s
Channel: Wild Times at the San Diego Zoo
Description: Learn all about these incredible creatures, including how much a 100+ year-old tortoise weighs, and how the "Finch response" plays an important role in tortoise health.

Wild Times at the San Diego Zoo

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Learn all about these incredible creatures, including how much a 100+ year-old tortoise weighs, and how the "Finch response" plays an important role in tortoise health.

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00:00Hi, we're here at the San Diego Zoo's Galapagos tortoise exhibit.

00:06We have a herd of 17 tortoises, including 10 males and 7 females.

00:11So this is our youngest Galapagos tortoise.

00:13She's 10 years old.

00:15She hatched here at the San Diego Zoo.

00:17If you notice on the front of her leg, she's got these big enlarged scales.

00:21They're kind of sharp and spiky.

00:23They protect her face when she pulls into her shell.

00:26It'll actually protect the soft skin on her neck and her face.

00:30And also the edges of the marginal scutes on her shell are scalloped, and that's for protection.

00:35As adults, these wear down and become flat, as do the scalation on her legs.

00:39When she becomes an adult, she doesn't have to worry about predators anymore.

00:42There are no natural predators for Galapagos tortoises, other than when they're babies.

00:48This is Speed. He is our oldest male Galapagos tortoise in the herd,

00:52as well as the oldest animal in the entire zoo.

00:55Speed came here in 1935, and he was already well into adulthood when he came to our zoo.

01:00He was already about 500 pounds then, which makes him well over 100 years old now.

01:05Speedy is our largest tortoise. He weighs in at about 617 pounds.

01:10He's actually very shy. You can see he's kind of tucked into a shell right now.

01:14He's got a very submissive personality, despite his size.

01:18So when you come to the San Diego Zoo and you visit the Galapagos tortoise exhibit,

01:22you can identify Speed here by looking at his number.

01:24He's got a white number 5 on the back of his shell.

01:26The boys in the herd have white numbers on the back of their shell,

01:29and the girls have red numbers on the back of their shell.

01:31That's one way you can tell them apart.

01:34So this is Winston. He's one of our male Galapagos tortoises.

01:37He's actually the second largest in our herd.

01:39This behavior that he's doing is actually something that they do in nature.

01:42It's called the finch response.

01:44And what it is, is a tortoise will stand up like this, extending their neck,

01:47and the Darwin finches that live on the Galapagos Islands land on their neck,

01:50and they pick off ectoparasites.

01:52It's a symbiotic relationship that they have with these birds.

01:55The birds benefit from getting the parasites.

01:57The tortoises benefit from having the parasites removed.

01:59Winston is showing this behavior here because he's enjoying the neck rubs.

02:02It's actually a good enrichment for the tortoises.

02:06This is Augustus. He is our alpha male of the entire Galapagos herd.

02:10He's from Santiago Island.

02:12He has the longest neck and the longest legs of everybody here.

02:15So tortoises from Santiago Island, like Augustus,

02:18are characterized by having an elongated shell that comes up high over their neck.

02:23It's called a saddleback shell.

02:25You can see these marginal scoots really lift up above his neck,

02:28so it allows him to really reach up high for forage.

02:31So this is Wallace. He's one of our male tortoises.

02:35Wallace is from the Santa Cruz Island.

02:37Tortoises from the Santa Cruz Island are characterized by having a very large, round, dome-shaped shell.

02:42The marginal scoots in the front don't lift up nearly as high as Augustus from Santiago Island.

02:47They come down lower, which means that he can't lift his head up as high to eat.

02:51In the wild, he would be foraging for grasses, cactus, and low-growing shrubs.

02:56Oliver and Isabel here are what we call an intermediate-phase Galapagos tortoise.

03:01They're from the volcano Darwin off of southern Isabel Island.

03:05Now, you'll notice their shells are not quite domed, and they're not quite a saddle shape.

03:10They're kind of an intermediate phase.

03:12They can forage for food on the ground, and they can also reach up a little bit high for food as well.

03:18There are several differences between male and female tortoises that you can notice.

03:22The first is the overall size.

03:24Oliver here is about twice as big as Isabel.

03:27The second way you can tell them apart is their tails.

03:31Oliver has a tail that's about a foot long, where Isabel has a tail that's only about three or four inches long.

03:36And the third way you can tell girls from boys is if you were to flip them on their backs,

03:40the boys have a concave plaster on, which is their bottom shell, and the females have a flat plaster on.

03:46I love their personalities.

03:48They have a real gentleness to them.

03:50They all have very individual personalities.

03:53I just have so much respect for them.

03:55They can live to be over 150 years old, which I just find to be amazing.

04:00And they're just big, gentle giants.

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Scratches Are Loved By Everyone! Including This Massive Tortoise

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