The Dear Wonderful Hubby linked up with a naturalist and he showed the two of us around a bit of Madagascar. One of the stops this naturalist arranged for us to have was at Le Domaine de Fontenay Lodge.
This is the home of Galileo, an Aldabra giant tortoise, (the naturalist explained that he toured around with a world renowned reptile expert when that expert first visited Madagascar and that was how he ‘met’ Galileo).
Stars, was Galileo HUGE! He reminded us of the brontosauruses in Jurassic Park. He walked and moved the same way.
We could get into his stone pen with him. We didn’t touch him because we didn’t want to infect or injure him in any way but he touched us. (grins) He wasn’t shy about that, especially when he was looking for bananas!
Every person we talked to assigned Galileo a different age. One person told us he was 300 years old. According to the internet, Aldabra giant tortoises tend to only live to 120 so that IS possible but is unlikely. (laughs) He’s still seen some sh*t, however. We could see that in his eyes.
He’s the only Aldabra giant tortoise at Le Domaine de Fontenay Lodge and I felt a bit bad about that. But there are MUCH smaller tortoises in his pen so he isn’t all alone. He has some company!
