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With the way the San Diego Zoo is renovating many of its exhibit areas, you'd never know that we have been in a less-than-optimum economy for a couple of years now. Early last year the new Elephant Mesa opened, costing several million dollars, and just a couple of days ago, the Galapagos tortoise exhibit opened after undergoing four months of renovation that cost a million dollars.
There are four subspecies of Galapagos tortoises at the Zoo. They can live to be 150 years old although one in an Australian zoo lived to be 171. The San Diego Zoo has the largest collection in North America, 17 of these giants. Although the oldest one is 130, Galapagos tortoises have only been at the Zoo since 1928 — Calvin Coolidge was president then.
These giants weigh between 400 and 600 pounds, and although they are vegetarians and have no teeth, they do have a huge beak similar to a raptor, which looks like it can do some serious damage. They love carrots and lettuce.
Tortoises love to have their necks stroked, but previous to the renovation, you had to take the Behind the Scenes tour to do that. No longer! With the renovation, if there is a zookeeper or a volunteer on duty, there is now a small area where you can reach out and stroke their 
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9 Comments on Out & About San Diego with Jim Frimmer, Your Mission Valley Realtor — You don't have to go to the Galapagos Islands to see the Galapagos tortoise!
Jim - Excellent information on Galapagos tortoise. I wan not aware of they colud live that long. Thanks for the blog.
Jim - When I was a kid growing up, there were two place in Balboa Park we went several time a month - hoping for a brass ring on the carousel and the zoo! As we got older, the museums came into play ... but early on - nothing better than the zoo. Thanks for bringing back fond memories ... and updating on a favorite place.
150 years...we can learn from these guys! Thines like take it s-l-o-w, eat veggies, and mind your own business!
Fantastic! I love how prehistoric they look. Great job!
How awesome is this! Almost as great as when Sea World created the exhibit where you could feed and pet the dolphins! I love the tortoise! Years ago my late husbands grandparents had a tortoise. (Not a Galapagos!) His name was Tommy. He belonged originally to the great grandparents who owned him for about 15 years prior. He hung out in the back yard and played with the dog and cats. The grandparents had this tortoise for well over 20 years. One day someone left the fence open and Tommy went on a neighborhood tour. Someone saw him and called someone with the zoological society or something and unfortunately, Tommy was a breed of tortoise that was not legal to be owned as a pet. Tommy's new home from that point forward was the San Diego Zoo! The zoo was actually very pleased to have him, he was a rare breed of tortoise. I have no idea how they came to own this tortoise, but I am sure Tommy is probably still alive and very happy at the Zoo. They live to be hundreds of years old! (Probably one of the reasons they are not allowed to be pets!)
Jim, great photos and excellent information! Thanks for sharing your city's zoo with us!
Hi, Jim. I love Gary's Comment (#3).
It must take DAYS for visitors to see everything in your wonderful zoo. You and Russel are lucky that you can go so frequently!
Wow their life span is incredible!
Thanks to everyone for stopping by and commenting. Comments are greatly appreciated!
I'm trying to follow up on these older posts like this one to see if anyone had any questions or if I really need to respond to anyone's comments.
I will read all the comments and respond to any that need a response, but rather than making comments here in my post to each and every one of you, I'll just let everyone know that I have read all the comments and if there are any questions, I'll answer those in comments below this one. Otherwise I'll simply post this comment and then head over to your blogs soon to visit and do some reading and commenting. I hope you'll have a nice welcome mat out for me!
Don't forget to let your cat come out to play with all the other ActiveRain kitties. Your cat-friendly dogs can come, too! At the end of the 2010, which is the Chinese Year of the Tiger, I'm going to put together a slide show or an eBook of all the ActiveRain kitties. If you see any stray cats roaming around ActiveRain, gather them up and bring them over to our forever home right here! The more the merrier!
Also, if you need a great cat book, get yourself a copy of Peg Silloway's The Cat Lover's Book of Days. It has great pictures and cat trivia, and you can use it year after year since it only has dates but not years.
Best wishes to everyone for a great Fall!