Are You A UK Aldabra Keeper Or Owner ? If you are, your species needs you.

 

   There are a number of Aldabra Giant Tortoises in the zoos, in the UK, and their ages range from mature animals to juveniles. Lock down showed that it takes a a lot of time and money to run a zoo, these days, and you cannot drive forwards with every animal that you have in your collection. This means that many of the zoos, in this country, use their Aldabra tortoises as an Ambassador species, meaning they are not actively interested in getting their animals breeding, right now, but they are a good visitor attraction and people can say "Ooh isn’t that a big tortoise!’’ before moving on to the Lions and Elephants.

 

   Each animal has its own part to play in the survival of a species and these Ambassador animals are just as valuable as any others. After all, that is one of the main points of a zoo,- so that the public can go there and see an animal that they would not have time, money, facilities or many other reasons to make the effort to go see them in their home environment, in the wild. People are much more likely to want to protect an animal if they can see it, ‘in the shell’ so to speak, rather than just as words and pictures in a magazine or an item on a nature show, or even on a website!

 

   There is however, also a growing army of private Aldabra keepers in the UK and these range from the early pioneers, who were the first to import Aldabras into this country and have decades of knowledge, acquired over this time. To the newer owners, who are just starting out on a potential lifelong custody of their pet. These reptiles are becoming more popular in the pet trade as people realise that they can actually have, and successfully keep, one in the UK.

 

   As far as we know, no one in the UK or Europe, either a zoo or a private collector, has managed to successfully breed these animals. And, with the impact of climate change looming ever nearer, we feel that now is a good time to get ourselves in order and do something about helping these vulnerable reptiles before they become endangered.

 

   As we have said in the ‘How Climate Change Is Affecting The Aldabras’ section of this website. There are many terrible consequence for the wild population, ranging from inbreeding and potential, drastic reduction in the number of wild tortoises that can survive on Aldabra due to the shortage of food, caused by temperature rises, to the outright extinction in the wild.

 

 

   For many years now, we, at Aldabra Giant Tortoises UK have wanted our animals to do their bit towards saving their species and not just sit in the back garden being lawn mowers and getting fat.

 

   We are fortunate to have maybe the largest collection of Aldabra tortoises in the country. And with all this in mind, one of our future aims would be to try to band this army of Aldabra keepers together, both private owners and zoo and wildlife park collections to begin a register of our own, for Aldabra keepers here in the UK. If one already exists, that is great, but it would seem to be a well kept secret if there is. 

 

   We have been trying to track down who holds the European Stud Book for the Aldabra Tortoise, there must be one, but so far we have been unsuccessful. Unfortunately stud books tend to be for owners who are zoos and members of various official Zoo Welfare Associations etc and that does not apply to us, and will not apply to most of the Aldabra owners in this country either, who, like us, are private individuals. There are approximately three times more Aldabras in private ownership than there are in all of the zoos and wildlife parks in the UK. We have no doubt that a  number of these other owners would like the chance and challenge of getting involved.

 

   The other problem, with joining that Stud Book, is that since Brexit we are no longer part of Europe and it would be much more difficult to transport animals across international borders. There is now much more paperwork and red tape involved, it would not be a case of popping the animal into the back of a suitable van and waiving a passport at Customs, as you take your Aldabra onto the continent to meet a new potential love interest.

 

   Climate change is the hot topic at the moment, with veterinary and conservation societies becoming more concerned about the climate crisis, as it is accelerating faster than many expected. It is time for people, and their Aldabra Tortoises, to step up and be counted. This is our chance to start somewhere, if anyone is interested in joining us, in this new beginning they would be more than welcome. As fellow owners and keepers you will already, no doubt know that nothing happens quickly with these giant beasts, it takes a long time, so the sooner we get started the better.

 

   As mentioned elsewhere on the site, the UK is very different environmentally from the Seychelles and only by working together, and sharing data, will we gain enough knowledge to be able to achieve our ultimate goal, of creating a viable UK breeding programme, in a practical amount of time.

 

   A number of the larger animals in the zoos and wildlife parks, here, seem to have been either wild animals that have been gifted, or are on loan, from the Seychelles Government, or customs seizures of animals trying to be illegally smuggled in from the wild. For the rest of us, realistically there are only a couple of breeding places that have exported to the UK in the last 20 or so years. So there is a strong, unavoidable, chance that UK specimens are related but we hope to widen the gene pool as far as we can.

 

   Some of the big Zoos in Europe are investing more research into these animals and they have the money behind them to make faster progress. However, we also have advantages,- you can take a 24 hour interest in your animals, unlike a zoo keeper whose job it is to look after the tortoises during their working hours. There are only 40 Aldabra Giant Tortoises in Zoos and Wildlife Parks in the UK, so that means there could be 3x as many in private ownership, that is one heck of an under used resource.

 

   After all, it would only take two animals to produce a batch of viable young and if we can get the right animals interacting then our chances of success improve, in our efforts to help save a species.

 

   The idea of these projects is not so that we can create a breeding farm, here in the UK, and potentially make money. No one would deny that it would be great to see the little hatchlings pop out of the egg for the first time on UK soil and even better if us ‘little guys’ were able to achieve it before the multi million pound zoos on the continent!

 

   There are only two, truly, Giant Tortoise species left in the world, the other 10 have already been made extinct. At the moment Aldabra Giant Tortoises are classed as vulnerable but it would not take much to tip them over into the endangered category, like the Galapagos Giant Tortoise.

  

   When we take our animals out to some of County shows and such, during the summer months, for educational purposes, we sometimes get the comment of “the animals should be taken back to the wild and not be kept in captivity”.

 

   The reality is that these animals have been in the UK for most of their lives and they have gotten ‘soft’. It would be cruel to send them back now. It would be a bit like us saying that man originated from Africa and we should all return there. Fine, maybe you could survive in the African bush, like our dim and distant ancestors did, but we too have a soft life now, you would miss Netflix and pizza, so we doubt you would get many willing volunteers, for such a suggestion. Aldabras are the same but they can also be a valuable research tool, right here in the UK.

 

   These animals have a job to do here in this country, besides keeping the grass short! And that is that we have a chance to learn from them up close, so that we can better help protect their wild brethren. The animals here in the UK now, would never go back but looking to the future, it is possible that there maybe a time when their offspring may return to their homeland, if needed, for repopulation purposes.

 

   We need to do more research on their potential breeding requirements here in the UK, as it will be very different from what they need in the wild or other places that they have been successfully bred, around the world. If we- and by ‘we’, we mean all Aldabra keepers in the UK not just us, are eventually successful then it could help protect the future of their species.

 

   As just mentioned, other keepers around the world can successfully breed these animals, so why do we need to bother? The answer is simple, they will need UK bloodlines. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that the wild population could be wiped out in one go, if there was a catastrophic weather event in the area, something like a Tsunami- then all of the wild animals could be washed off the Aldabra Atoll and into the Indian Ocean.

 

   Worryingly, the breeding parks, where most of the pet trade animals, around the world, are originally exported from, are also located in the same area and thus they too would be very susceptible to this Tsunami as well.

 

   Yes, America, particularly in the region of Florida is very successful in hatching eggs but that is then a niche group of animals, you would need to mix in genes from other populations, in captivity around the world, to keep the species healthy and thriving. We may only have 170 animals in the UK but those could be 170 vital specimens. Any one of them, including your very own pets, could be the UK Aldabra Adam or Eve!

 

   The breeding tortoises in Florida are mature animals and at some stage they are going to give up laying, will their next generations be so successful? That area of America does not have perfect weather conditions either, so who is to say tragedy could not strike in that region of the world too. We do not want to end up with another ‘Lonesome George’ situation on our hands.

 

   Realistically, if the future weather is so bad for the rest of the world then the UK, being an Island, would no doubt have serious problems of our own. This would mean we would have less time and inclination to devote to saving a species, at the other side of the world, if we are trying to save ourselves. Right now we have been forewarned of impending disaster, if we want to do something to avert it then we need to plan and now is the time to begin, as it could be a long arduous journey.

 

   There are vets in this country exploring the possibility of artificial insemination, using what they have learned with other species and trying work out how to apply it to the Aldabra Giant Tortoises, which could mean your animal does not even have to travel and leave your property, which would be a big plus. The animal would feel safer in their own environment and likelihood of the pregnancy taking hold would surely be increased. If you move an animal to a different collection, it will be stressful for them, and take time for the to settle in, to a new routine. If they can stay in familiar surrounding stress levels could be so much less.

 

   There are many animals out there, who are youngsters and maybe have only just come into this country, within the last couple of years but they too could have a vital role in the future. This is a long term project, realistically breeding probably wont happen in our life time, for most keepers, as the animals will still be too young. Nothing happens quickly with Aldabras but if we can get a jump on the situation it will stand us in greater stead if needed in the future. It would also be quite a legacy to leave, to be able to say you, and your animals, were involved in setting up the first UK breeding program.

 

   So far, we believe there are around 170 - 200 Aldabras, of varying sizes, and ages, living in the UK, which is about equivalent to 0.11% of the wild population. And when you consider there are around 13 million dogs in the UK, this is just a tiny drop in the pet trade ocean.

 

   

 

 

 

   The ultimate aim is to form a unified force of UK Aldabra keepers- a 'UK Aldabra Army' and set up a UK breeding programme. In the future, this 'Army' can be used to help study all aspects of Aldabra husbandry, not just breeding. So that all of the potentially isolated knowledge, we have, gets a chance to be shared, for the benefit of these unique animals that we care about. Not all experts have spent years studying at universities. Practical field or in our cases ‘back garden’ knowledge is just as important to improving Aldabra care.

 

For example:

   A seventy five year old woman who is doing her gardening, with her Aldabra mooching around beside her, is just as likely to, initially, note that her animal is attracted to reds- when it eats all of her strawberries and tomatoes! as the scientist doing hours of technical eye examinations and finding they have predominantly red spectrum vision.

 

   Obviously, her findings would need further medical investigation but small pieces of information, like that, are what could send the ‘Boffins’ off in the right direction and potentially save years of research.

 

   Everyone keeps their animal slightly differently, there is no set breed standard. Different areas of the country will produce sightly different results, there will be different grass content for them to eat, different amounts of natural light, different natural temperature ranges etc.

 

   Say we have 170 Aldabras in the UK, and they are kept in pairs, that would mean that we have potentially 85 study groups, that is more than a team of scientists could monitor, particularly when spread across the country- what a resource!

( yes, there could be more or less and some keepers will have more or less animals. And we know it is very unlikely that we will actually manage to track down all owners, or that they will all want to participate!)

 

   You also have an advantage, friends, family- grandchildren who can help you notice things, this means we have just doubled, tripled, maybe more, the number of ‘Citizen Scientists’ at our disposal.

 

   It is not the intention that people would be bombarded for research observations and you have to stand there watching your animal 24/7,- people have a life out side of their tortoises! but maybe something like the natural light project ours were involved in a few years ago would be achievable, in a different form.

 

   Some of our Aldabras had data sensors fitted to their backs to monitor how much time they spent in the sunshine. That is not practical on a large scale, and it would be far too expensive but if you make a basic plan of your garden indicate where North is and then make a note of where the tortoise is and at what time. Then that is the same basic information, it will show where they like to be during the day. Morning they could be basking to warm up, lunchtime they could be sleeping in the shade and afternoon eating and making their way back to bed. You do not need to do anything special- like get out the deck chair and watch them intently through binoculars for hours on end, you could fit your observations in throughout the day, even just glancing out of the window as you wash up, whenever was convenient to you.

 

   You normally do regular welfare checks on them during the day, all you would need to do is just notice where they are at that time. Do your usual routine for a couple of weeks and then try changing it slightly- maybe check them before you have your lunch rather than after, small things like that- it would not be a major inconvenience to you but it would provide you with different data results. These would show you what you could then provide or remove to improve their lives e.g. they need more or less shade. So, stack a couple of old bricks together to make a low wall for them to hide behind when it’s hot or trim that plant back, which is blocking their basking area. It’s nothing drastic or overly time, or money, consuming but you have already improved their environment.

 

   Just so you know, there is not a study project like that running at the moment, so we would be grateful if you did not flood us with this information right now!

 

   However, in the future, any suggestions of what the ‘UK Aldabra Tortoise Army’ could study, could be looked into more closely and the results shared. We don’t have to wait for a scientist to require research to want to improve our animals environment. The discovered information could also improve the husbandry for some of the smaller breeds too, after all the basic requirements for all tortoises is very similar.

 

   Even if you don’t want to become involved in the ‘Scientist’ side of things, for whatever reason, that is good too. Your animals are just being natural UK tortoises, developing how they see fit, and how they turn out is just as valuable to know. Every study group requires participants like that.

 

  It is all very well coming up with ideas but it is another thing to get them put into practice, we just have to work out how to achieve this now. If anyone knows of similar projects, already in place for Aldabras, specifically in the UK, please let us know. We do not wish to tread on anyone’s toes and duplicate research that already exists. We are not averse to working with European collections, in the future, but right now we would start by concentrating on animals only in the British Isles.

 

   We know that, on the whole, Aldabra owners are a private group of people, and we respect that, being ones ourselves. However if anyone wants to ‘Chat Aldabras’, please feel free to get in touch. agtuk@mail.com

 

   If you would like to sign up and become a member of the 'UK Aldabra Tortoise Army' head to our 'Join The Army' page, in the R U An Aldabra Keeper section.