Mother Nature Network

Galapagos tortoise ‘Lonesome George’ may have company
DNA analysis revealed 17 hybrid tortoises that can trace ancestry to Lonesome George’s species, the Chelonoidis abingdoni.

Once found in Egypt and Libya, the Egyptian tortoise — one of the smallest tortoises in the world — is now close to extinction in Egypt due to habitat destruction. Although two populations exist in Libya, the species has lost much of its coastline habitat. Today there are about 7,500 Egyptian tortoises remaining in the wild, but populations continue to decline due to hunting for folk medicine and the illegal pet trade. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as critically endangered.
10 of the cutest endangered species

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Tortoise Metro!!

A 4-day-old African spurred tortoise, one of eight babies, sunbathes on its mother’s head in the animal park in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary. 

by Attila Balazs

Giant tortoise Lonesome George dies
The only remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise in the world passed away on Sunday with no known offspring.

Photo of the day: Tortoise hatchlings
An adult African spurred tortoise keeps a careful eye on a litter of four hatchlings on June 14 as they explore a lawn at SeaWorld in San Diego, Calif. The adult, named Buster, is about 20 years old, and the young ones are just under a year old.

Turtle ‘marriage’ ends after 115 years
After more than a century together, two tortoises at an Austrian zoo have apparently called it quits — and their divorce is anything but amicable.

A zookeeper places a spider tortoise on a toy balance on Jan. 10 to illustrate its size during the annual inventory count at Germany’s Hanover Zoo. Endemic to Madagascar, the spider tortoise is a critically endangered species. The tortoises are especially sensitive to captivity and must only be kept by experienced keepers.
The best animal photos of January

Galapagos tortoise thought to be extinct reappears
Researchers ‘found’ the lost species by analyzing the genome of a closely related species, Chelonoidis becki, which lives on Isabela Island, the largest of the Galápagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Hundreds of tortoises basks in the sunlight on a ledge emerging from a pond at the Guiyuan Temple in Wuhan in China’s Hubei province on Oct. 16.
MNN’s photos of the week

Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Australia welcomed the nation’s first home-born Galapagos tortoise on March 19, 2011.

Now, at more than a month old, the hatchling is a mere three inches long and weighs just three ounces.

Galapagos tortoises are known for their massive size. Males can grow up to six feet long from head to tail and weigh more than 500 pounds. It takes between 20 and 25 years for the species to reach full size and sexual maturity. Adult tortoises have been known to live more than 150 years, according to the San Diego Zoo.