Happy Post: Tiny Tortoises

[dizzojay]

Kathryn, a lady I work with, has two pet tortoises, George and Yoshi.  They have been in her family for years, Yoshi (the male) is approximately 55 years old, and she reckons George, the female is about 40.

Now George and Yoshi aren't shy about getting down to 'it' (the sheer mechanics of that act in tortoises still breaks my brain) and Kathryn has seen George lay eggs several times, although she's never had a successful outcome.

Until now...

George's latest clutch of five eggs, hatched about two weeks ago and produced a healthy clutch of four little hatchlings - one egg was a dud.

Now, I've never seen a teeny tiny baby tortoise before, but last Friday we all piled into Kathryn's car and went back to her house one lunchbreak to visit the little week-old babies ... and they were sooooo teeny-tiny!!

As the babies hatched, Kathryn had marked each one so that she'd be able to tell them apart, so at the moment their names are one, two, three and four.  As you can see, I was playing with one and four.

Just for scale - this is my hand that the little guys are sitting in.

Comments

[septembers-coda.livejournal.com]

OMG so CUUUUUUUUUTE! I was just chatting with reapertownusa all about my love for reptiles. And wow, to have them in the family for so long and suddenly have grand-tortoises--that's a wonderful story. <3 <3

[dizzojay.livejournal.com]

They are such little cuties, I've never been that close to such a young tortoise before. I said to Kathryn they're not like mammal babies which are smaller, squisher, cuter versions of their parents, these are perfectly proportioned tortoises - just adorably tiny!