Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i've just returned from a trip to see a friend who lives in japan, and while i was in tokyo i visited ueno zoo where i got to see a GALAPAGOS tortoise (the only one i've ever seen in person!) as well as some others! they're all uploaded into my pethobbyist gallery (linked below) for anyone interested in checking them out.

they have a neat setup there for their reptiles, amphibians, fish, etc. -- they have a huge greenhouse-like vivarium that keeps a nice warm tempurature inside. beats the hell out of the circa 1950 piece of crap reptile house here in zoo atlanta, that's for sure.

my pethobbyist gallery

Thanks for sharing the pics in your pethobbyist gallery.

In your gallery, I think the two tortoises in your first picture, (which you say you don't know the species), are actually Radiated Tortoises! Not the most colorful examples but rare.

The picture of star tortoises look like the rare subspecies called burmese stars and nice ones at that.

If anyone disagrees, feel free to correct me. If I'm correct, your tokyo visit to the ueno zoo was even a little better than you thought!

John

Your correct John, although Burmese stars are a different specie, Geochelone platynota

thanks for the species id on the radiated torts. i was having a tough time remembering the signage on their exhibit; i just did a google image search and radiated and it looks just like them! i was quite impressed that, the poor little cherryhead aside, they all seemed to be in excellent health and had pretty nice enclosures (and that vivarium was nice and warm!).

glad y'all enjoyed the pics!

Nice pics.

Just an fyi though. Zoo Atlanta has plans to completely redo their reptile house and I can assure you it will be top notch. What you may not know is that ZA has many breeding programs with turtles and tortoises 'behind the scenes' and their general curator is a turtle fanatic. There is a brain trust at ZA for reptiles that few other zoos could compete with. Sometimes resources are scare but the need for a new reptile house has been acknowledged for sometime. I can't wait until they get it done!!!!!

if that's true, then that is wonderful news. it's bothered me for some time that the reptiles are the only guys whose area hasn't had a complete overhaul. good to know that there is more than meets the eye there. my redfoot's former vet has gone full time to zoo atlanta (dr. samuel rivera) and i know that he too has an enormous soft spot for turtles and tortoises, so that's always a good thing! too bad that zoo atlanta is more or less land-locked and has so little room to grow size-wise unless they swallow up some of grant park (no loss there in my opinion but you know that would probably never happen).