Discover the Giant World: Top 9 Amazing Fun Facts about Galapagos Tortoises

1. Tick-lish Spa Day

Talk about a free spa day: Galapagos tortoises play host to tiny birds such as Darwin's finches and Vermilion flycatchers, who feast on ticks hidden in their skin folds and shell, while these gentle giants stand tall and stretch their necks to expose the tasty buffet.
Source => galapagos.org

2. Tortoise Gym

Who needs a gym membership when you're a Galápagos tortoise, throwing around lion weights like it's going out of style: The Galápagos tortoise can weigh a whopping 661.4 pounds, over four times the weight of an adult male lion, and can live up to 150 years in the wild, thanks to their tough shells and excellent fitness regime!
Source => speedofanimals.com

Did you know tortoises crunch on snail shells for a calcium-rich snack before enjoying a mix of fresh and dry leaves? Discover more fascinating tortoise tidbits!

=> Fun Facts about Tortoises

3. Methuselah's Love Child

If Methuselah and the Energizer Bunny had a slow-paced love child, it'd be the Galapagos tortoise: These laidback reptiles can live well over 100 years with the record-holder Harriet basking in her prime at an astounding 175, before finally retiring at the Australia Zoo.
Source => saczoo.org

4. Symbiotic Salon

Who needs a day at the spa when you can have a tick-lish treatment from feathered friends? That's right, the Galapagos tortoises have their very own salon service in nature: These slow-moving giants enjoy a symbiotic spa day as smaller birds expertly pick off pesky parasites, like ticks, from their massive bodies, helping both parties – tortoises get a skin treatment, and birds score a satisfying meal.
Source => galapagosconservation.org.uk

5. Whaler's Feast

Move over, Captain Ahab: Whaling vessels in the 19th century had quite the appetite for Galapagos tortoises too! However, they didn't exactly take the slow-and-steady approach when it came to food supply: historical records reveal that over 13,000 tortoises were killed, their meat immediately consumed on board, leading to a startling decline in the gentle giants' population.
Source => whalesite.org

6. Dome or Saddleback Dilemma

It seems that even the Galapagos tortoise experiences the age-old dilemma of "to dome or not to dome?": The tortoise shells come in two distinct shapes, domed and saddleback, which impact their ability to recover from a literal fall from grace. Saddlebacks have to shell out more energy to flip over compared to their domed counterparts - quite the conundrum these gentle giants face as their adaptations to varied environments are a subject that keeps scientists coming out of their own shells!
Source => discovermagazine.com

7. Giraffe-inspired Salad Reach

It seems that Galapagos tortoises have taken a leaf out of giraffes' book and have found their way to up their salad game: these peculiarly designed herbivores have evolved saddle-shaped shells with a high notch above the neck, allowing them to stretch their necks higher and reach elevated vegetation in order to survive on the drier and hotter islands of the Galapagos.
Source => kids.nationalgeographic.com

8. Slo-mo Ninja Survival

Who needs a 100-year gym membership when you're a slo-mo ninja? Galapagos tortoises have cracked the secret to long life and epic drought survival: These chilled-out reptiles boast a lifespan of over a century and can go a full year without food or water due to their uber-efficient metabolism and nutrient-stowing body fat.
Source => galapagosconservation.org.uk

9. Temperature Gender Battle

In the battle of the sexes, even tortoises are feeling the heat – literally: the gender of Galapagos giant tortoise hatchlings is greatly influenced by the incubation temperature of their eggs, with warmer conditions producing more females and cooler temperatures yielding more males.
Source => metropolitan-touring.com