Friday 27 September 2013
World’s Largest Tortoise found in Amazon Basin – 529 Years Old
The World’s largest tortoise found in Amazon River is around 529 years old / height-59 feet/ weight-800 pounds OR 362.87 kg incredible.
The red rimmed tortoise is also called the red-foot or red-legged tortoise, the Brazilian giant tortoise, or South American forest tortoise.
These types of large size tortoise are always found in the Amazon River, most of them are found in (Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and so on) the Adults often reach 3m in length, however this one is much larger. The tortoise Females have wide flattened shells, are larger and more numerous than the males tortoise, the Adult tortoise Arraus feed entirely on plant food.
Their main diet is a plant that is native to the Chtac Province region of Brazil. These flowers of this plant have a gene in them which promotes increased cellular life thus allowing those that consumed them to have a greater lifespan. Amongst the native inhabitants are turtle’s that grew constantly in their lifespan until the day they died. The introduction of this flower into their diet thus allowed them to grow to immense sizes and they served as local guardians to the plant.
It was first discovered by the modern world in 1892 by Haughton who was the last person to had seen it in the century.
The nesting habits of this species are similar to those of sea turtles. Just like sea turtles they gather meet in huge numbers so they can travel to suitable nesting areas. The female tortoise lay their eggs on sandbanks that are exposed where there is only dry season but there are relatively few such sites.
The females timing is to come out on the sandbanks at night time to lay their eggs and go back to the sea, which can number anywhere from 90 to 100 soft-shelled eggs. and they then return to their feeding grounds which they belong to.
The young when hatched are around 5 cm long darts directly for the water, but they emerge to the attentions of many predators so they can only about five percent ever reach the adult feeding grounds. This it is an endangered species and is protected in some country and areas.
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