Taronga Zoo Galapogos Tortoise

boof

boof

Well-Known Member
20+ year member
I have been looking through my old zoo friends magazines from Taronga and western plains zoos. In the September 2005 issue it has a story about Galapogos tortoises. The article stated that they are trying to breed them. Does anyone know if they have had any success yet?
 
i also heard that dubbo was interested in breeding their tortoises. in fact i believe both species of giant tortoise are priorities for breeding under ARAZPA guidelines.

giant tortoise have bred in many institutions around the world. lets hope they do it, though with animals that live for almost 200 years, i guess time is on the zoos side hey?
 
Galapagos Tortoises at Auckland Zoo

my email to my contact at Auckland , and the response is below .....
give them time , and we will see what happens .....


To: AucklandZoo
Subject: Galapagos Turtles

Hi Leigh ,
Can you ask the turtle keeper for me ;

What sex are your tortoises ?
2 males + 2 females

Are you hoping to breed them
Yes

Are they breeding already ?
Tentative beginnings - no fertile eggs yet.
 
that's good news, Nigel. I hope the Aussie zoo's give it a go as well.
 
News on the Perth zoo website is they now have three male Galapagos Tortoises, they were born in the San Deigo zoo in 1988.
 
What about aladabra giant tortoises is anyone breeding them, i dont think adelaide is
 
Any records on what subspecies of Galapagos tortoise is in Australian zoos? It would be nice to assign them to subspecies level as that would improve chances of breeding from them. In the Galapagos breeding station lonesome George is an example of a subspecies currently virtually extinct with only 1 rep. It has been demonstrated that tortoises of similar genetic background breed up and those that are not genetically related not. Can anyone tell me?
 
Seychelles tortoises

Any news on Seychelles tortoises? What about speciation in these? A project on the Seychelles is breeding back some ancient tortoise lines that would make the Australian group interesting!!!
 
there are 7.5 aldabra tortoises in the australasian region. i know that melbourne zoo have bred theirs in the past, but that was a few decades ago now. they are prioritised for breeding, so hopefully that will happen soon but they are all apparently of pure aldabra island heritage.and there seems to be some confustion as to the exact taxonomy of other tortoises in the region. do they represent subspecies, species or simply physical variations amongst a species?
 
I will try again: anyone guess what subspecies/taxon is present in the ARAZPA region for Galapagos tortoise G. nigra. That would be extremely important as ssp. differ on dome- and flatshaped shells and also in general behavior. It is a genetics thing that divides even over an island into several taxa.
 
perth house hybrid tortoises auckland and dubbo have unspecified animals. think i remember hearing them talking of genetic tests on dubbos tortoises (which they are trying to breed) on the radio - zooboy or zuki?
 
thats great zuki. has anyone ever had a look at aldabra and galapagos tortoises side by side? i haven't. presumably, gigantism is something tortoises are prone to when isolated from predators on islands. however since the galapagos and aldabra islands are on opposite sides of the globe and the two species represnt a case of convergent evolution, i would be interested in knowing what morphological and behavioural differences there are between them.

mark, your a reptile guy are you not?
 
I think there is probably some confusion about Aldabran and Galapagos Tortoises in this region. There are currently 8.6.0 Aldabrans (Aldabrachelys elephantina), and 10.4.0 Galapagos Tortoises (Geochelone nigra) in the region.

Western Plains Zoo has Galapagos Tortoises, not Aldabrans.

The ARAZPA Reptile TAG (Taxon Advisory Group) has recommended for Aldabrans that "Agreement not to recommend captive breeding due to space limitations, longevity of these tortoises and no requirement for reintroduction". And for Galapagos Tortoises: "In view of longevity of these tortoises, no capacity for reintroduction, and public interest in a 'generic giant tortoise', the TAG has agreed to support captive breeding to meet regional needs, including of known hybrids if necessary".
 
Auckland Zoo

Please refer to earlier email in this thread .

Auckland Zoo has Galapagos turtles , and are attempting to breed them
 
well look, if ARAZPA is stalling giant tortoise breeding due to space limitations,

they should have just asked!!!!

i would be more than happy to have a few walking around my place. my house has been tortoise free ever since i was thirteen and kevin, by beloved turtle scaled a 1 ft fence surrounding his pen and ran away for the billionth, but last time.

poor kevin and poor me, i nagged my mum for about 5 years before she finally let me get that turtle - i still miss him.

BOOO HOOOO!!!!! (and the socceroos...:()
 
ZooPro said:
I think there is probably some confusion about Aldabran and Galapagos Tortoises in this region. There are currently 8.6.0 Aldabrans (Aldabrachelys elephantina), and 10.4.0 Galapagos Tortoises (Geochelone nigra) in the region.

Western Plains Zoo has Galapagos Tortoises, not Aldabrans.

The ARAZPA Reptile TAG (Taxon Advisory Group) has recommended for Aldabrans that "Agreement not to recommend captive breeding due to space limitations, longevity of these tortoises and no requirement for reintroduction". And for Galapagos Tortoises: "In view of longevity of these tortoises, no capacity for reintroduction, and public interest in a 'generic giant tortoise', the TAG has agreed to support captive breeding to meet regional needs, including of known hybrids if necessary".
Click to expand...


I deplore the assertion from the TAG that no capacity for reintroduction exists. As far as I know it has never been tried from zoo circles back to the Galapagos islands. I find it equally depressing that endangered taxa are allowed to hybridise for the sake of display only.

To put things into perspective: 2 subspecies are critically endangered (less than 50 matures), 4 are endangered (less than 250 matures) and 4 are vulnerable (less than 1,000 individuals). It is a sad omen that zoos are content to just maintain and breed hybrids (where all these taxa are vulnerable in the wild with less than 1,000 individuals among them). I feel that zoos have a particular responsibility to increase current stocks of these endangered gentle giants and assist with restocking efforts on the Galapagos. I urge you all to write to your relevant zoo staff to reconsider this practice. Also it should be possible with the new techniques to finally assign subspecies to current unknowns (all island taxa have been DNA-fingerprinted with particular genes to every taxon).

I look forward to any comments.

Jelle
 
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