DECATUR – At age 50, Sam the Galapagos tortoise at Scovill Zoo is just a young adult. The oldest known tortoise is Jonathan, age 189, who resides on the island of St. Helena in the south Atlantic Ocean.
The female tortoise, Ella, had a party for her 50th birthday, too, a few years ago, Weaver said. She also celebrated on Thursday, but the focus was on Sam. He enjoyed a “cake” made of watermelon, cantaloupe and other such treats that he seldom gets because fruit for a tortoise is equivalent to candy for humans and not something that is healthy to eat too often. Ella, who was moved to another pen temporarily, had her own treats.
“We're kind of combining the party with an enrichment,” Weaver said.
The enrichment has to be documented, she said, and reviewed by the Association each year to ensure the well-being of the animals.
“It's a big deal,” she said. “It's not just that we throw toys in there or something.”
While the party was underway, Ryan Kirkland wandered through the visitors carrying Wednesday (named for the Addams Family character), a 2-year-old American alligator. Wednesday is still quite small and willing to have her tail and back stroked by humans.
Careful control of the alligator's diet is important, Kirkland said, because if they grow too fast or too slow, it's not good for them. Wednesday is just the right size for her age, and exposing her to handling and human visitors is important so she'll be used to people. She was quite calm, sitting in his hand and almost dozing as her admirers took photos.
Matthew Lighty, 6 was very gentle as he touched her long tail.
“We actually didn't know this was going on today,” said Matthew's mother, Melissa. “We just decided to celebrate because school is going back (into session) and we came here to the Decatur zoo because we haven't been here before.”
Neither had the Curtin family of Champaign: mom Gussie and the kids Auggie, 4; Taika, 2; and Petra, 7 months. They attended Sam's party and had already seen several other animals as well.
“We saw penguins and zebras and cheetahs and the petting zoo,” Gussie Curtin said. “They were a little afraid of the goats.”
“Mindy's really good about celebrating wolf birthday parties and tortoise birthday parties, and she keeps up a lot better than I do,” Frye said with a chuckle. “It's just a significant number and we wanted to celebrate for Sam here today.”
GALLERY: Scovill Zoo through the years
Zoo pens
Baby burro
Cuddling goats
Charlie Brown
Self Start
Posing goat
Fancy feathers
Peacock
Malayan sun bear
New surroundings
Elusive prey
Greeting the goats
Scovill Farm Zoo goats
Angora kid
Sharing popcorn
Boa constrictor
Toucan
Burro and Shetland pony
Scottish Highlands cow
Baby llamas
Spider monkey
Roberta the bobcat
Raccoons
Attention-getter
Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter