CHRONICLE-HERALD (Halifax, Nova Scotia) 14 June 04 Over the hill, but still snappy; Museum's own celebrity, Gus the tortoise, a ripe old 82 (Kristen Lipscombe)
It was party time for a local celebrity Sunday afternoon.
Gus, the infamous gopher tortoise, invited all of his friends to his 82nd birthday bash at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax.
"He's the star," said Lynn Karchewski, a staff naturalist at the Summer Street museum. "Generations of people have seen Gus at the museum - he's a celebrity in his own right."
Ms. Karchewski said the museum has been throwing birthday parties for Gus every year since 1980.
This year about 60 museum visitors recognized his birthday by making cards, writing notes and drawing pictures for Gus.
Birthday guests had the chance to guess Gus's weight, watch him eat his favourite foods (strawberries and dandelions) and take him for a walk outside.
Laura Chan, 11, was one of Gus's party guests. She said she has hung out with him before, in the museum's backyard.
"They walked him and he just crawled around," she said.
Laura guessed that Gus weighs about 13 pounds. Her younger brother, Brendan, said he thought Gus must be close to 90 pounds. When museum staff weighed him at the end of the day, the scale read just over eight pounds.
Visitors had the chance to gently touch Gus while he played in his sandbox. They also learned more about their favourite from Ms. Karchewski and the other naturalists.
"He likes to drink his bath water," Ms. Karchewski said to a group of youngsters sitting in a circle around Gus, who was obviously the centre of attention for the day.
"He likes to blow bubbles and if you're really lucky, you'll get to see Gus take a big mouthful of water and squirt it through his nose. "When Gus eats a lot of berries, he'll get a red ring around his mouth and it looks like he's wearing lipstick," she said to the curious children, who burst into a chorus of giggles.
And what's a birthday without cake?
"I want the cake now, Gus's cake. I want to go eat cake now," piped up Joell Swann, 5, as he looked toward one of two large white cakes with green and yellow icing.
None of the other partiers argued with that. After singing Happy Birthday to the guest of honour, they lined up to fill their bellies.
Ms. Karchewski said Gus hatched from a golf ball-sized egg in 1922. He lived at a reptile institute in Florida until 1942.
It was then that Don Crowdis, the Halifax museum's director at the time, purchased Gus for $5 and brought him to his current home.
"Gus has had a lot of adventures in his life," Ms. Karchewski said. "He's been kidnapped before - in 1950 someone brought him (to their) home for two years. No one ever found out who, but Gus was left on the museum's doorstep one night."
Mr. Karchewski recalled another time when Gus escaped from the museum's former location on Spring Garden Road and was eventually found in the Public Gardens.
"He can be very stubborn at times," she said with a laugh. "He has become a bit of a prima donna - he likes his bananas green and won't eat the other ones.
"But he's also very friendly and very used to kids. I think he's appreciative of all the attention he gets.
"Being able to see him, touch him and watch him walk around is the best kind of natural history interpretation you could want."
Museum's own celebrity, Gus the tortoise, a ripe old 82