Aldabra giant tortoise

About Aldabra giant tortoise:

• It is the second-largest species of land tortoise in the world, after the Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra).
• It can live for 100 years and has a fascinating history.
• This tortoise evolved from ancestors of Aldabrachelys abrupta, one of two giant tortoises that inhabited Madagascar for 15 million years.
• Four million years ago, the Aldabrachelys abruptalineage migrated, likely via a combination of drifting with floating vegetation and assisted by their natural buoyancy and good swimming abilities, to Seychelles.
• These are endemic to the Aldabra Atoll of the Seychelles, an archipelago nation in the western Indian Ocean about 930 miles east of Africa and northeast of Madagascar.
• Habitat:
  • These are terrestrial and occur in a wide variety of habitats, including scrub forests, mangrove swamps, and coastal dunes and beaches, each with their respective vegetation.
  • The largest populations of tortoises are found on grasslands called "platins."
  • Due to prolonged periods of heavy grazing, a habitat known as “tortoise turf”, consisting of a variety of grasses, has developed in certain areas.
• Conservation status
  • IUCN: Vulnerable
  • CITES: Appendix II