ZSL London Zoo Giant Tortoises in Land of the Giants?

CountAlmaviva

CountAlmaviva

Member
As most of you probably know, London's currently about a third of the way through building a giant tortoise house over the previous anoa paddock, next to the komodo dragon house.

I just wondered if anyone knew anything more about it. The volunteer that I talked to seemed to think that the three tortoises themselves were coming from Zurich??
 
If they are coming from Zurich, does this mean they will be Galapagos Tortoises ?
 
CZJimmy's photo of a promotional image calls the exhibit 'Giants of the Galapagos', so they (hopefully) must be.
 
The 'Giants of the Galapagos' is opening at Regent's park tomorrow - see their web-site for pictures etc.

They have 3 Galapagos tortoises - 70 year old 200 kg male Dirk , females 16 year old Dolly and 14 year old Dolores - and there has been a lot of mating since they were introduced . It does not say where they came from . I cannot remember if any of ZSL's previous group of giant tortoises which went to Raymond Sawyer's private collection ( and I think bred there ) were Galapagos .
 
Bele said:
The 'Giants of the Galapagos' is opening at Regent's park tomorrow - see their web-site for pictures etc.

They have 3 Galapagos tortoises - 70 year old 200 kg male Dirk , females 16 year old Dolly and 14 year old Dolores - and there has been a lot of mating since they were introduced . It does not say where they came from . I cannot remember if any of ZSL's previous group of giant tortoises which went to Raymond Sawyer's private collection ( and I think bred there ) were Galapagos .
Click to expand...

Really glad it opened so soon I'm planning on going in less than two weeks and I can't wait to see this new exhibit :D

just thought i'd post this: http://www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo/news/love-or-lust-only-time-will-shell,609,NS.html
 
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Bele said:
The 'Giants of the Galapagos' is opening at Regent's park tomorrow - see their web-site for pictures etc.

They have 3 Galapagos tortoises - 70 year old 200 kg male Dirk , females 16 year old Dolly and 14 year old Dolores - and there has been a lot of mating since they were introduced . It does not say where they came from . I cannot remember if any of ZSL's previous group of giant tortoises which went to Raymond Sawyer's private collection ( and I think bred there ) were Galapagos .
Click to expand...
All the ones that went to Raymond Sawyer`s are Aldabaran!
 
Bele said:
The 'Giants of the Galapagos' is opening at Regent's park tomorrow - see their web-site for pictures etc.

They have 3 Galapagos tortoises - 70 year old 200 kg male Dirk , females 16 year old Dolly and 14 year old Dolores - and there has been a lot of mating since they were introduced . It does not say where they came from . I cannot remember if any of ZSL's previous group of giant tortoises which went to Raymond Sawyer's private collection ( and I think bred there ) were Galapagos .
Click to expand...

I remember the giant tortoises in the Reptile House used to be labelled as 'Porter's blackish tortoises' (subspecies nigrita from Santa Cruz), but one of my old Yearbooks says they also had a pair of vicina from Isabella.

Alan
 
There was a brief bit on the BBC News about them. I'm pretty sure that one of the keepers said that they brought them in from Rotterdam.
 
Most Galapagos in Europe are sadly hybrids between the different races. This is partially to do with the intransigience of Ecuadorian authorities to promote ex situ conservation with pure-bred Galapagos giants around the world, partially with past desinterest in maintaining and attempting to breed giants (not just Galapagos but also Aldabrans).

Strangely enough, the originator of the hybrids has a pretty good working relationship with Ecuador .... So, if the ESB/EEP is to develop further some pure-breds would have to be exchanged with SSP in order to make up pure-bred pairings and promote breeding. It can still be done as even at 70-95 years of age the Galapagos giants are in mid life (and not in crisis mind).
 
It seems male Dirk may be a pure-bred Galapagos (aged 70). Rotterdam acquired 2 old males from European collections and Dirk is probably 1 of both. The females are prob hybrids from the Zuerich line, as their ages correspond to the breeding data at Zuerich.
 
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