DAILY SUN (Nigeria) 29 December 06 Grand old tortoise - Its estimated age is put at 120 years (Akin Alofetekun)
Minna: Alhaji Salisu Zaria and Ibrahim his brother may not be your ideal Charles Darwins. However, as collectors of animals, the brothers, especially Ibrahim will tell you the age of any animals they see. Interestingly, some of the animals are more than a century old.
Moving from city to city across Nigeria, Salisu and his boys have on display harmless animals, like the oldest tortoise in the world and wild ones, like Hyena.
According to Ibrahim, the tortoise, with the size of the biggest frying pot, cannot be less than 120 years old.
“Even my grandfather told me he grew up to know the tortoise. He said his father told him the age of the tortoise and by our calculation, we arrived at 120 years,” Ibrahim said.
He disclosed that they sell traditional medicines. With the animals they move about with, Salisu and his brother attract people, and make enoumous sales.
“We have about 20 types of such medicines as cure for different types of ailments. At every show, like this one, we make about N10,000 in the sales of these traditional medicines.
“When we leave here we go to another state and may not come this way again until six months later,” Ibrahim said.
Grand old tortoise - Its estimated age is put at 120 years