LONG LIVED TORTOISE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4455, 22 May 1930, Page 4

LONG LIVED TORTOISE.

SCIENTIST’S TO RESCUE. New York, April 2. Eight Galapagos tortoises have left the Bronx Zoo on a goodwill lour to Sydney, to he presented to Now 'SouJth Wales. The migration of the huge testndinates is part of a plan to save them from extinction. At present, at the age of three to five years, they only weigh seven to nine pounds, but if their natural food, the cactus, holds out, they arc expected to weigh 5001 b. and to live 400 years.

They are portion of a collection of 180 tortoises brought back from Galapagos by Dr. Charles Townsend, leader of the New York Zoological Society’s expedition. He found the tortoises harassed and the young eaten by dogs and pigs —wild, ferocious descendants of sailors’ pets left on the islands in the last century or so. Those which survive are in danger of being eaten by man, because they have been esteemed for food since sailing ships began calling at Galapagos for water in 1780. Sailors discovered that a 40011). tortoise could live without food for months and still provide good food for them. The tortoises have been distributed in Florida, Southern California, Louisiana, Bermuda, and the Hawaiian Islands. Each is tagged with a number. Half-yearly reports will be sent to the Zoo authorities here on their food, weight, and measurements. All those at the Bronx Zoo are in good health. “Buster,” who was received there in 1902, weighing 141 b., now weighs 3551 b.