Philadelphia Zoo’s oldest residents welcome even more new kids
Three new Galapagos tortoise babies join their four sisters, who hatched earlier this year and were named after the "Golden Girls."
Kids when you’re 100? Not a problem for these four-legged centenarians.
The Philadelphia Zoo announced its oldest residents — Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoises Mommy and Abrazzo — are proud parents to three new male hatchlings.
So far, the new arrivals haven’t been named and are growing behind the scenes inside the zoo’s Reptile and Amphibian House, where they are eating and growing appropriately.
Their births swell the family to nine members, after the zoo welcomed four female hatchlings earlier this year named after the Golden Girls — Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia.
It’s great news for everyone involved in the zoo’s conservation efforts, considering Mommy is estimated to be about 100 years old and is believed to be the oldest first-time mom of her species. She’s lived at the zoo since 1932, with Abrazzo arriving in 2020.
“It is such a delight to have the final eggs of Mommy’s first viable clutch hatch,” Rachel Metz, the zoo’s vice president of animal well-being, said in a statement.
Mommy and Abrazzo’s family could be welcoming even more members soon. Nine eggs laid in January inside the Reptile and Amphibian House are showing signs of development within the zoo’s incubators. They could begin cracking through their shells in the coming days and weeks, the zoo said.
All the hatchlings will remain in Philadelphia for at least five years, so residents have plenty of time to stop in and say hello.
The Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise, found on the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, is listed as a critically endangered species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Once totaling over 250,000, today there are only estimated to be about 17,000 Galapagos tortoises, though that number has been on the rebound due to conservation efforts.
The life expectancy of a Galapagos tortoise is about 175 years, so Mommy and Abrazzo still have plenty of time to welcome more babies. Abrazzo also isn’t a first-time dad — he fathered five hatchlings in 2011 at the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C.
In addition to Mommy and Abrazzo, the Philadelphia Zoo is also home to a third Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise — female Little Girl. The zoo is also home to two giant Aldabra tortoises, Wilma and Betty.