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The biggest Aldabra tortoise I know of is Esmeralda, living on Bird Island in the Seychelles. She's a he, and he is >300kg and reputed to be over 170 years old. There's a video of him here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ0b5z4o-Mw

I love your elephants, erh... sorry, tortoises!!

I don't think/know of that tortoises can drink salt water. I'd think not, but simply that it lived off its internal reserves (which they can do for months). Probably it even used/lost less water by floating in the sea, than it would have in the dry & hot environs on Aldabra? [hr] Yes, and...

Sam, you said you'd post something on behaviour in Galapagos & Aldabran giants -- when can we expect to see/read this? :) (waiting with bated breath)

Many ways of being awesome; setting up a tortoise reserve in a chunk of rainforest in Hawaii doesn't sound too bad to me :tort::cool::D

That is SUCH a great photo! Social interactions between Aldabrans are very much understudied, but likely very important to understand how & what makes them tick.

..now there's an idea for next halloween on the atoll! Thanks to all for your kind words; I'm glad you liked him!

It's in case they wake up & get the munchies! :D

Hi All, There are some questions and thoughts scattered through this thread about tortoises and swimming/floating. I thought I'd add a bit of info here in one place, where it can expanded on by others. So yes, many tortoises float very well. That's how they ended up on isolated oceanic...

Is that a tortoise or a beetle? :D -gorgeous no matter which!

Thanks for this info; I have posted a photo of a sleeping adult male in the photos section, in case you want to see what luxury beach accommodation looks like on Aldabra :D

How large (straight carapace length) is Tuff?

Dear All, Here's a photo of a male Aldabra tortoise, who found the perfect place to sleep: 5 meters away from the beach, catching the very last rays of sunshine on his beautiful face. For some reason, I love the Aldabrans' eyelids. Their soft leathery-ness is in stark contrast to the shell &...

I see all kinds of shapes; from 'nearly saddlebacked', to quite flat, to quite domed; from narrow (width-wise) to wide animals. Whether there is a heritable component to this we might know in a year or two, when a genetic analysis of many/most of Picard Island's population of ~2,000 animals is...

Sam, this is very interesting, and it certainly seems to be the case in the wild, too. On the inland tortoise turfs on eastern Grand Terre, there are plenty shade trees/shrubs around. However, during noon heat, the tortoises congregate under just a few of these trees (always the same trees)...

Hehe, nice hiding place! thanks for sharing! Was inspired by you to put up a photo of one of the Aldabrans doing his best to hide from us on a population monitoring transect :)

...or whatever his name may be; a large male being dwarfed by vegetation on Aldabra:

Yes, more photos of that, please! I love the way adult Aldabrans sleep/rest with utter abandon, legs stretched out in whatever way they fit. Do the small ones sleep like that, too? -or generally a bit retracted into the shell?

Okay, I think now's the time to share one of my favourite things about Aldabra with you: tortoises on tortoise turf. Not just one, not just two, but tens, nay hundreds!, of tortoises - grazing away on the inland turfs of eastern Grand Terre. First time I saw this sight, I giggled and laughed...

A heads-up from the field: One of our tagged Aldabra tortoises, a large male, has walked more than 55 km since he was tagged late January last year, until November. That's about 5.5 km per month, on average. Over ground that is sometimes very tough to navigate. I will try to have a look at the...