Some good news for the long term:
A pair of critically endangered, nearly 100-year-old Galapagos tortoises at the Philadelphia Zoo have become first-time parents.
In an announcement Friday, the zoo said it is “overjoyed” at the arrivals of the four hatchlings, a first in its more than 150-year history. The babies are the offspring of female Mommy and male Abrazzo, the zoo’s two oldest residents.
The quartet is being kept behind the scenes inside the Reptile and Amphibian House for now, “eating and growing appropriately,” the zoo said. They weigh between 70 and 80 grams, about the weight of a chicken egg. The first egg hatched on Feb. 27 and more that still could hatch are being monitored by the zoo’s animal care team.
“Mommy arrived at the Zoo in 1932, meaning anyone that has visited the Zoo for the last 92 years has likely seen her,” she said. “Philadelphia Zoo’s vision is that those hatchlings will be a part of a thriving population of Galapagos tortoises on our healthy planet 100 years from now.”
I don’t know about you but I’m soothed by the idea that these tortoises have been on this earth a hundred years and, if things don’t completely blow up, they’ll still be here long after most of us are gone. Giving birth now just seems like a hopeful sign to me.
Happy weekend everyone.