Nigrita, a beautiful 80-year-old Galapagos tortoise that lives at a zoo in Switzerland, recently made international headlines after she become the proud mom of nine little tortoises.
Now, you might think eighty is pretty old for someone to become a mom, and you would be right. Not a lot of animals live to be eighty years old, not to mention give birth, but Nigrita is one of the lucky few.
In fact, as a Galapagos tortoise, she’s actually considered pretty young. That’s because these tortoises don’t actually start reproducing until they are 40 years old, which is how old my dad hoped I’d be when I first started dating.
Well, getting back to the Galapagos tortoises, it’s important you know that they are known across the planet as one of the most enduring species of animals in the world. So they might not run fast, but they are definitely long running.
Their life expectancy is of about 190 years old, but they can live longer than that. The world’s oldest Galapagos tortoise to date was Adwaita who died in 2006 at the estimated age of 255.
But although these tortoises have an extended life span, there simply aren’t many of them left. The species is endangered, largely because hungry predators and greedy humans who buy them on the black market.
So Nigrita’s babies might be small, but they are extremely important. The mom tortoise is currently part of a breeding program at the zoo where she is well taken care of.
Here are some adorable photos of her with her tiny babies.
