The tortoise’s attack was filmed by Anna Zora, conservation manager on Frégate Island and co-author of the study. He added: “The whole interaction took seven minutes and was quite horrifying.” It was a very slow encounter, with the tortoise moving at its normal, slow walking pace.” “The giant tortoise pursued the tern chick along a log, finally killing the chick and eating it. “This is completely unexpected behaviour and has never been seen before in wild tortoises,” said Dr Justin Gerlach, director of studies at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and affiliated researcher at the University of Cambridge’s Museum of Zoology, who led the study. The footage stops before the tortoise begins eating the bird. When the tern gets within striking distance, the tortoise snaps its mouth closed, and the blow appears to immediately kill the bird. Watch: Turtle species 'extinct for 100 years' rediscovered The footage shows the tortoise approaching the young tern, which doesn’t appear to be aware of the danger it is in, and instead repeatedly approaches the tortoise which is plodding steadily towards it. The ground beneath the trees the colony is nesting in is littered with fish, as well as chicks that have fallen from their nests. Large-scale habitat restoration on the private island, which is managed for ecotourism, has enabled seabirds to recolonise it, and there is a colony of 265,000 noddy terns. Researchers on Frégate Island in the Seychelles have captured, for the first time, the moment when a Seychelles giant tortoise turned into a violent predator, pursuing, attacking and eating a tern chick.Īll tortoises were previously thought to be vegetarian, with the exception of occasional cases of eating carrion opportunistically, or consuming bones or snail shells for calcium.īut since the “ hunting tortoise” was recorded last summer, the researchers have said others in the area have been spotted engaging in similar behaviour.Įxperts suggest this entirely new hunting behaviour is driven by the unusual combination of a tree-nesting tern colony and a resident giant tortoise population. Tortoises are widely considered to be plodding, placid herbivores, but new footage of a giant of the species hunting, killing and eating a bird has taken scientists by surprise. If she'd wanted, she'd be gone much further, as experiments on Galapagos giant tortoises have shown they can cover an astonishing 12.8 km (8 miles) in just 2-3 days.Watch: Moment a 'vegetarian' giant tortoise was caught hunting, attacking and eating a seabird Their average walking speed is about 0.3 km/h (0.18 mph), so technically it would have taken Aboo less than hour to get to the spot where she was caught.
"She can walk faster than we can ever imagine."Īpparently, when it comes to the walking speed of giant tortoises, it's all down to whether they are striding somewhere with purpose or just randomly grazing through the shrubbery. I stopped my car and asked my colleagues to help," Yamane told AFP. It's actually Aboo's second go on the lam in less than a month, since the tortoise already wandered off on July 21, only to be quickly caught on a nearby road.
#Angry giant tortoise relentlessly hunts man down free#
But we guess you can never underestimate a truly free spirit. The escape artist belongs to the Aldabra giant tortoise species ( Aldabrachelys gigantea), which are some of the largest tortoises in the world.Īboo herself is over a metre (three feet) long and weighs about 55 kg (120 lbs), so you'd think she would be easily spotted in the neighbourhood. From now on, we'll make sure to take perfect care of our animals," one of the zoo staff, Yoshimi Yamane, told Japan Times. She is allowed to freely roam the zoo grounds, and this facilitated her escape. "It will be a good memory for me from this summer break," said Akira.Īboo, who is about 35 years old, was found to be in perfect health and immediately demolished some fruit upon her return to the park.
They succeeded just 15 minutes into their quest and couldn't believe their luck. And just yesterday a local bounty hunter finally apprehended the reptile, having spotted her chilling in some bushes a mere 140 metres (460 feet) from her home, the popular Shibukawa Animal Park in Okayama.Īccording to Kyodo News, Aboo was found by local resident Seiichi Tonai and his 15-year-old son Akira, who were inspired to go on the hunt after hearing that the zoo was offering a cash reward.
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