Houston Zoo's Oldest Resident Becomes First-Time Dad at Ripe Old Age of 90
Mr. Pickles is already such a great father!
It's not every day that a 90-year-old and a 53-year-old become parents for the first time. The Houston Zoo is celebrating the arrival of three baby tortoises--aptly nicknamed 'the sweet little pickles'--after a pair of radiated tortoises named Mr. and Mrs. Pickles laid eggs together for the first time in their decades-long relationship.
Mr. Pickles is the zoo's oldest resident at 90 years young, and he's been with his 'wife' since she arrived at the zoo in 1996. The pair are part of a critically endangered species called radiated tortoise, Houston Zoo's herpetology zookeeper told Fox 26 Houston, so it's especially meaningful that the eggs survived until hatching.
Just look at how tiny the little one is! Jalapeño is just one of the three tortoise hatchlings who are thriving in their own enclosure, but we have no doubt that his siblings (Dill and Gherkin) are just as precious. It's too bad that the public won't see them for another 8 to 10 years!
According to ABC News, Mr. and Mrs. Pickles' eggs survived thanks to the vigilance of their caretakers. Someone happened to see Mrs. Pickles laying eggs, so the team was able to transfer them to a more ideal environment before it was too late.
As the zoo explained in a blog post, "The soil in Houston isn't hospitable to the Madagascar native tortoises, and it's unlikely the eggs would have hatched on their own if the keeper hadn't been in the right place at the right time."
For now, the sweet little pickles will remain 'behind the scenes' in the Reptile & Amphibian House. These endangered animals deserve every chance to grow into adulthood, after all, especially since the species is known to produce few offspring. If only we didn't have to wait so long to see the babies, though!
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