Ivory Turtle

Testudo elephantopus - the elephant tortoise - is considered the largest species of all today's turtles in the world. An adult has a weight of about one hundred and fifty to two hundred kilograms. People also met a giant tortoise, whose weight reached four hundred kilograms. These reptiles belong to the rarest species. Today there are about sixteen subspecies. All of them are listed in the Red Book.

Galapagos tortoises have a huge shell. Its length reaches one hundred and ten, and the height is of the order of sixty centimeters. Maintenance of a powerful and heavy body is provided by thick columnar legs. Carapace (armored dorsal part) descends from behind quite steeply. At the front, it practically does not go down. Thus, there is a rather wide opening for the neck (long and relatively thin) and forelegs. The elephant tortoise is slightly smaller than the male, which also has a longer tail.

In their habitat, these animals are the brightest representatives. When the Galapagos Islands were discovered in the 17th century , the Elephant tortoise was very common in this area. It should be noted that these animals are very readily available. In this regard, pirates and whalers filled the holds of the ships with live animals and set out on their journey. An elephant tortoise can live without eating and drinking from twelve to fourteen months, without significantly losing weight. Thus, seafarers during their travels were always provided with fresh meat, relieved of hunger and scurvy. However, this mass extermination of animals led to a significant reduction in the population. Approximate calculations indicate that over three centuries, about ten million elephant turtles were destroyed. At the same time, individuals of medium and small size were caught. And this, as a rule, was immature individuals and females, which often descended to the lowlands for egg laying.

Meat of elephant turtles was widely used for food. It was salted or used fresh. Turtle fat was used to obtain a wonderful transparent oil. In order to see if the fat in the caught individual is enough, the skin at the tail was cut. If the fat was not enough, then the turtle was released. They say that animals recover quickly enough from such an "operation."

The extermination of elephant turtles during the time of Darwin was very intense. With the advent of the steam engine, the invention of canned food, the reduction of the whale population, and at the same time the popularity of whaling, interest in turtles as a product disappeared completely.

However, after some time Ecuadorian settlers appeared in the animal zone. They brought goats, dogs, horses, cats, pigs to the islands. Some representatives of the brought animals, wild, settled on the mountain slopes. Pigs, dogs and cats began to eat turtle eggs. Horses, goats, cows and other herbivores began to destroy vegetation, thus depriving adult turtles of fodder. Reduction of the population during this period was facilitated by the extraction of turtle oil. Settlers caught the largest individuals, from which you can get especially a lot of product.

Elephant turtles are brought to many zoos in the world. There they live a hundred and more years. These animals are very unpretentious. They only need sun, heat, water and plenty of plant food. It is noticed that elephant turtles are very fond of tomatoes. They tend to any object of red color, hoping to find in it a favorite treat. Many zoos are engaged in breeding these animals. So, a very successful work on the breeding of young individuals is conducted at the San Diego Zoo.