Reptile & Amphibian Forums

TRIBUNE-REVIEW (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 29 March 08 Zoo's oldest resident -- a 75-year-old tortoise – dies (Allison M. Heinrichs)
Shortly after he started his career as a reptile keeper at the Pittsburgh Zoo, Herb Ellerbrock opened a large crate in 1972 and got his first look at Big Mo.
"When we opened the crate up, I said, 'Wow, that's one big tortoise,'" Ellerbrock said, recalling his introduction to the yellow-footed tortoise that was destined to become the zoo's oldest resident. "He was just real nice and easygoing."
The Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium announced Friday that Big Mo died on Sunday. His age was estimated at 75.
The tortoise was being treated for a respiratory infection.
"He seemed to be making a rebound but, upon his death, we did find that he had a large mass" in his chest pushing on his lung, said Henry Kacprzyk, curator of Kids Kingdoms and reptiles at the zoo. Vets are testing the grapefruit-sized mass to see if it was cancerous.
The wild-caught tortoise came to Pittsburgh from the South American rainforests where his relatives are threatened by habitat destruction, though they are not yet endangered.
Zoo officials estimated Big Mo's age based on his size. He weighed 86 pounds and was 2 feet long and almost 2 feet wide.
He arrived at the zoo with a female, but the two never had offspring and she was sent to another zoo more than a decade ago, Kacprzyk said.
Ellerbrock couldn't recall how Big Mo got his name, but said it was appropriate because it is rare for yellow-footed tortoises to reach his size. Most grow to a little over a foot long.
Big Mo lived up to Aesop's fable, plodding at a slow and steady 0.16 mph, a pace that would have taken him nearly 10 hours to circle the zoo's exhibits.
A vegetarian, Big Mo's favorite food was bananas, though he enjoyed apples, grapes, carrots and vitamin-enriched turtle biscuits. He spent summers lounging in an outdoor pen in Kids Kingdom and winters in the reptile holding building.
Zakula, the 39-year-old matriarch of the zoo's gorilla troupe, assumes the title of oldest Pittsburgh Zoo resident.
Zoo's oldest resident -- a 75-year-old tortoise – dies

POST GAZETTE (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 29 March 08 'Big Mo' dies; at 70-plus, tortoise was oldest at zoo (Pohla Smith)
Big Mo, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium's only yellow-footed tortoise and its oldest resident, has died at an age somewhere over 70, said Henry Kacprzyk, curator of Kids Kingdom and reptiles.
Mr. Kacprzyk said a keeper found Big Mo dead in the reptile holding building, where he was being treated for a respiratory infection, between 7 and 8 a.m. last Saturday.
A necropsy showed that Big Mo also was suffering from a grapefruit-sized mass that was pressing on his lung. "It would have made his breathing labored," Mr. Kacprzyk said.
"It's a decent age for a tortoise," he added, though he noted that the Australia Zoo had a female Galapagos tortoise who was approximately 175 when she died on June 23, 2006.
Mr. Kacprzyk said Big Mo came to the Pittsburgh Zoo in 1971 or 1972 as a wild-caught adult. Keepers estimated his age from his size as tortoises grow throughout their life. At the time of his death he weighed 86 pounds, was 29 inches long, and 21 inches wide.
Big Mo was mated one time at the zoo, but no eggs were produced, Mr. Kacprzyk said. It was not immediately known if he had a more successful breeding during a one- or two-year trip to a zoo in Providence, R.I., during the early '90s.
The curator said Big Mo was very easygoing with staff and that he actually had gotten the tortoise to eat from his hand.
He "didn't seem to mind when visitors would continuously call his name so that he would look and they could get a picture."
Yellow-footed tortoises are named for the yellow-orange scales on their front legs. They live mostly in the dense rainforests and tropical lowlands of South America, where their biggest threat is habitat destruction. They are not classified as endangered at this time, but continued habitat loss could lead to bigger population loss by the species.
Mr. Kacprzyk said tortoises live up to their reputation as being slow, moving at about 1.6 mph. That leaves them unable to capture faster animals, so they eat "food that doesn't move." Big Mo's diet included vitamin-enriched turtle biscuits, greens, apples, grapes and carrots.
Tortoises have no teeth; they instead use the outer edge of their mouth, which is bone, to grasp and mash food.
'Big Mo' dies