Floreana Giant Tortoise

• fisiologíaIt can survive up to a year without food or water, an ability that historically allowed whaling ships to keep them alive as a store of fresh meat.
• It can live for over 100 years.
• historia naturalIt can live more than 170 years, and the differences in shell shape between islands — domed or saddle-backed — were among the first clues that led Darwin towards natural selection.
• It can go a year without eating or drinking.
• Each island in the archipelago produced its own shell shape.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - bony skeleton with a fused shell (reptile)

Habitat & environment

Low, arid, volcanic ground during the cooler hours, moving up to the humid highlands to feed during the day

Birth weight

~80 grams; 6 cm of carapace length at hatching

Size at birth

6 cm of carapace at hatching, about the size of a tennis ball

Sexual maturity

20-25 years in captivity (as long as 40 years to reach full adult size in the wild)

Gestation / incubation

120-200 days (4-8 months)

Litter / clutch size

2 to 16 eggs per clutch

Lifespan in captivity

Documented record of 170-177 years (the tortoise Harriet, who died in an Australian zoo in 2006)

Sources consulted: DinoAnimals; A-Z Animals; Nature Table; Animalia.bio; Chelonoidis nigra (Animal Diversity Web); Animal Spot; Tortoise Turtle; Wikipedia (Lonesome George, Diego the tortoise)

Best time: June to December