Triplets Of 90-Year-Old Tortoise Mr. Pickles Just Celebrated Their First Birthday

Dill, Gherkin, and Jalapeño were born at the Houston Zoo last Valentine's Day.

Last year, the Houston Zoo had an extra-special Valentine’s Day surprise: their 90-year-old radiated tortoise, Mr. Pickles, became a dad for the very first time. Now, one year later, these dill-ightful tortoise triplets are celebrating their first birthday.

One-year-old Dill, Gherkin, and Jalapeño are not only adorable—they’re also crucial in the conservation of radiated tortoise genetics. Ninety-year-old Mr. Pickles, their father, is the oldest animal at the Houston Zoo and has been with Mrs. Pickles, his companion, since she arrived at the park in 1996.

The pair's reproduction is a big dill; Mr. Pickles is considered one of the most “genetically valuable radiated tortoises” in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Species Survival Plan. Due to illegal over-collection for the pet trade and the reptiles’ tendency to yield few offspring, radiated tortoises are now critically endangered.

The survival of these little Pickles is largely due to perfect timing and intervention from the zoo’s Animal Care Team. One day, at the zoo’s closing time, Mrs. Pickles happened to lay her eggs in the soil in front of a herpetology keeper. “...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,” the Houston Zoo shared in a release last year announcing the triplets’ birth.

As radiated tortoises are native to southern Madagascar—a climate quite different from Houston—the Animal Care Team went to work retrieving and monitoring the eggs to give the future tortoises their best shot at survival. First, the eggs were cooled off to mimic temperatures in the wild, and then the soon-to-be-Pickles were protected in an 80-degree incubator. Dill, Gherkin, and Jalapeño hatched on Valentine’s Day 2023.

Now shell-ebrating their first birthday, each Junior Pickles weighs about 116 grams and is nearly six times its original size. But ​​Dill, Gherkin, and Jalapeño still have some growing up to do: Radiated tortoises can weigh up to 35 pounds with a shell length of up to 16 inches.

Here’s an added pickle perk: The Houston Zoo uses a portion of all membership and admission sales to assist zoo partners in Madagascar in replanting habitats like those Mr. Pickles, Mrs. Pickles, Dill, Gherkin, and Jalapeño would need to survive in the wild.

Next time you’re in Houston, Texas, relish in these little Pickles (and the importance of tortoise conservation) at the zoo's Reptile and Amphibian House.

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