Tortoise Chanakya, Hyderabad zoo’s star, dies at 125

Chanakya, the 125-year-old Galapagos giant tortoise that was a star attraction at the Nehru Zoological Garden in Hyderabad, Telangana, has died, apparently of age-related complications, the website news18.com reported. Alarm bells began to ring for the zoo officials when Chanakya stopped eating a few days ago, the report said. He was kept under the observation of the zoo’s veterinary team head, Dr M.A. Hakeem, but his condition did not improve. He refused to eat even...

‘If only he could talk…’ centenarian tortoise ‘enjoys’ cucumber treat

While cats dominate the internet when it comes to viral videos from Kingdom Animalia, a 106-year-old Galapagos giant tortoise named Adolf has been winning hearts recently. Jay Brewer, owner of The Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley, California, uploaded a video of Adolf chomping on cucumbers. In the video, Adolf’s neck rises out of his shell and the tortoise takes big bites of a cucumber. Brewer, only half in jest, says Adolf could easily chomp out...