Residing in the Wilds of Africa thanks to a generous gift from Patti and Bill Alcorn, Aldabra tortoises are in a home that closely resembles their native habitat of scrubby vegetation, grasses, and mangrove swamps off the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles Islands. The Aldabra tortoises’ new exhibit is located near the A.D. Martin Sr. Forest Aviary and the Jake L. Hamon Gorilla Conservation Research Center.
According to legends, the oldest Aldabra tortoise was a creature named Adwaitya, which means “the one and only.” It was a gift to Robert Clive of the British East India Company in the 18th century and it was given to the Kolkata Zoo in India in 1875. Considering that estimates recorded the turtle’s birth year as 1750, it was 255 when it died in Kolkata in March 2006.
The easiest way to differentiate an Aldabra tortoise from a Galápagos tortoise is the presence of a nuchal scute in Aldabra tortoises, a short section of shell that appears to be an indention by the nape of the neck.
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