EVENING TIMES (Glasgow, UK) 28 August 03 Horror as rare tortoises are 'cooked' in their shells
Photo: Heat Exhaustion: one of the Burmese Brown tortoises, shown in the Glasgow Zoo enclosure last year, which should have lived to 150 years
Seven endangered tortoises have been "cooked" to death in their enclosure at Glasgow Zoo.
Bosses today admitted that the rare Burmese Brown tortoises died of heat exhaustion after broken thermostat equipment sent temperatures soaring in their pen.
Desperate keepers were able to save three of the 10 tortoises affected by the accident which happened earlier this month when record-breaking temperatures outside combined with heating problems inside.
The news is the latest blow to the doomed attraction which closed this week after admitting it could not meet tough new zoo laws because of a financial crisis.
Today a spokeswoman for the zoo confirmed the incident.
She said: "Due to the failure of a piece of thermostatic equipment, combined with the hot weather we have been experiencing, 10 Burmese Brown tortoises suffered from heat exhaustion.
"We were only able to revive three of them."
Mike Flynn, the SSPCA superintendent in charge of the massive operation to rehouse Glasgow Zoo's animals after its closure, said the animals "succumbed after something went wrong with the boiler".
A senior British zoo official said the tortoises would have "cooked in their shells".
The three surviving tortoises are thought to have made a good recovery and will now be found new homes.
Former zookeeper John Thorpe, of the turtle and tortoise charity the British Chelonia Group, said: "This is very sad and very regrettable."
The Burmese Brown has been hunted to close to extinction in its native south-east Asia, where it is viewed as a delicacy.
The tortoise, which grows to 18 inches in diameter, is listed as either "threatened", "highly threatened" or "endangered" by several zoos and animal welfare groups.
Those at Glasgow Zoo are all at least 60-years-old but should have expected a lifespan of up to 150 years in captivity.
A Glasgow Zoo spokeswoman said the remaining tortoises were in safe hands and that the fault with the thermostat had now been corrected.
One of its tortoise enclosures was featured in a recent BBC1 television programme, UK's Worst Day Out.
Investigators filmed tortoises crawling across a bare concrete floor littered with their own excrement.
An expert invited to the zoo by the programme makers, James McKay, described the scenes as "horrific".
The zoo shut on Monday but has kept on keepers to look after animals until they can be rehoused.
Zoo bosses still hope to make £6million from selling a large chunk of the Calderpark site for housebuilding to clear debts revealed by the Evening Times as more than £5m.
Many zoo buildings are crumbling but official experts have never found evidence of animal mistreatment.
Horror as rare tortoises are 'cooked' in their shells
Horror as rare tortoises are 'cooked' in their shells