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Aldabra Tortoise

Aldabrachelys gigantea

Photo by Becca147
Published on Project Noah
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26.7153, -80.0534

Field Notes

Description:

Thank you for letting me know what type of Tortoise this is!

Habitat:

Captive in a zoo

Notes:

Light and dark brown shell with a black bird on top of the shell

Species ID Suggestions

Gopher Tortoise

Gopherus polyphemus

aldabra tortoise

aldabrachelys gigantea

Comments (17)

It was not at a palm beach zoo it was at lion country safari
is you want to go to a website to compare the picture to an aldabra tortoise type the link below http://www.floridanaturepictures.com/reptiles/reptile28.html sorry i could not get a click link
i think its an aldabran tortoise because the small cluster of plates on the side and then the two unbroken band like plates behind his head and rear. on thing I'm sure about is that its not a gopher tortoise
UNless it is just the angle of the photo, this specimin doesn't show the doming of the individual plates on the tortoise's shell that is typical of aldabran tortoises
i went to the palm beach zoos web site and found the tortoise it is called an aldabra tortoise it is one of the largest specimen of tortoise in the world
I'm sure that it is definitely not a gopher tortoise they are much smaller
I'm sorry i meant palm beach zoo there two towns fairly near each other is there any way it might be an african tortoise?
I found a palm beach zoo, but not a Boynton beach zoo. Palm beach has aldabran tortoise, but they are quite a bit different in terms of shell shape
i can't tell what the bird is but m pretty sure it was taken at the boynton beach zoo. maybe their website has a list of animals?
It would help if we knew the size of the bowl for reference. True. The bird(black vulture?) is far enough behind it to be difficult to use due to perspective
box turtles are even smaller this is a very large tortoise
thats much bigger than a gopher tortoise gopher tortoise usually range from 2"-2' in length they are not very large.
Actually, box turtles have a completely different shaped shell: higher domed and smoother, and usually more colorful. Also the bottom shell is hinged and the toes are very distinctly clawed. The gopher tortoise on the other hand has the very abrupt drop at the rear and the very blunt toes
It appears to be a gopher tortoise - native to your area. Did the zoo not have identification signs to refer to?

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