LA Zoo past: When did the Galapagos Tortoises leave?

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bionicrat

Member
Hey, guys. I just got back from the Galapagos and have been poking around to see what zoos actually have Galapagos tortoises. I found this archived interview with a LA zoo keeper from 1992:

CTTC - LA Zoo Galapagos Tortoise Keeper Interview

So we used to have 3? Presuming they are still alive, did they all move to San Diego to live with the Galapagos tortoises there?

Just curious.
 
bionicrat said:
Hey, guys. I just got back from the Galapagos and have been poking around to see what zoos actually have Galapagos tortoises. I found this archived interview with a LA zoo keeper from 1992:

CTTC - LA Zoo Galapagos Tortoise Keeper Interview

So we used to have 3? Presuming they are still alive, did they all move to San Diego to live with the Galapagos tortoises there?

Just curious.
Click to expand...

Probably someone here, possibly Zoochatters Michael and/or Blackduiker, can give you an exact time for when they left. It would have been the late 1990s. There were still Galapgos tortoises when I started visiting the LA Zoo in 1997, but by 2000 they had been replaced by Aldabra tortoises. I have been curious about why that was also, so perhaps someone in the know can illuminate this.
 
they had three Galapagos tortoises, two males from Houston called Bubba and Clarence (originally wild-caught of course) and one female called Flash Darwin (also wild-caught). One or two of them died and the last one left at the zoo (Clarence) went to the Exotic Animal Training and Management Program at Moorpark College in late 2000/early 2001.
Mismeasure for Measure - Los Angeles Times (the article only mentions two tortoises)
 
Thanks, Chlidonias! Most of the mystery solved. I little more googling seems to reveal Clarence still alive in Moorpark (he even has a Facebook page).
 
The Galops never bred for LA and it was determined to find suitable homes for the remaining animals(in a breeding situation if possible). The Aldabras came from a private holder in California and may have been the last animals shipped from there.
 
Michael said:
The Galops never bred for LA and it was determined to find suitable homes for the remaining animals(in a breeding situation if possible).
Click to expand...
They already had one animal (not one of the three mentioned earlier) on loan to Gladys Porter I think (?). One of the other three animals (Clarence) went to a non-breeding situation at Moorpark. One animal died. What happened to the third animal?
 
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