Rare albino Galapagos giant tortoise debuts at Servion Tropiquarium
Rare albino Galapagos giant tortoise
A rare albino Galapagos giant tortoise born on May 1 made its public debut at the Tropiquarium zoo in Servion, Switzerland on Friday.
Two of the tortoises were born last month at the Tropiquarium in the western town of Servion as part of a programme to preserve the endangered species.
One is black like its parents and the other is albino. Their gender is yet to be determined.
Thomas Morel, a staff member at the Tropiquarium zoo says, “At Servion’s Tropiquarium, we have three Galapagos tortoises, one male and two females that have currently reached their sexual maturity, they are about 30 years old, a bit more, they are 33. The success rate of mating is around 2 to 3 per cent because these species are very big, and mating is complicated, this is why there is very little mating for this species, so we are very happy that our male is very active and succeeded. They live around 200 years.”
“Regarding albinism, what we found out is that for tortoises, it's about one in 100,000, so it’s something very special that we are lucky to see,” He added.
The mother, who weighs more than 100 kilograms (220 lb), laid five eggs on Feb. 11 and the albino baby hatched on May 1. The other baby hatched on May 5 after the eggs spent two-and-a-half months in an incubator.
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The male weighs around 180 kg. Baby turtles weigh about 50 grams at birth and fit in the palm of the hand.
Morel says, “After several months of incubation, we had the chance to see the first hatching, it was the second hatching in the Servion’s Tropiquarium, we already had one last year, and this is the second. We were quite surprised by the tortoise’s colour. It can happen at birth, but after two days, we were sure it was an albino when it pointed the tip of its head, so it was really surprising, for this species, it’s quite extraordinary.”
[With inputs from agencies]
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