{"id":20168,"date":"2026-06-30T12:39:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T07:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=20168"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:08:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T08:38:34","slug":"aldabra-giant-tortoise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/aldabra-giant-tortoise\/","title":{"rendered":"Aldabra Giant Tortoise"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Aldabra Giant Tortoise Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the first day of his Seychelles visit, Prime Minister met and fed Jonathan, the Aldabra giant tortoise estimated to be 194 years old and recognised by Guinness World Records as the world\u2019s oldest living land animal.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Aldabra Giant Tortoise<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is the <\/span><b>second-largest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> species of <\/span><b>land tortoise<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the world, <\/span><b>after the Galapagos giant tortoise <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(Chelonoidis nigra).<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientific Name: Geochelone gigantea<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Aldabra Giant Tortoise <\/b><b>Habitat and Distribution<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>endemic <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the <\/span><b>Aldabra Atoll of the Seychelles,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an archipelago nation in the <\/span><b>western <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/indian-ocean\/\" target=\"_blank\">Indian Ocean<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about 930 miles east of Africa and <\/span><b>northeast of Madagascar.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These are <\/span><b>terrestrial <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and occur in a wide variety of habitats, including<\/span><b> scrub forests, mangrove swamps,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>coastal dunes and beaches<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, each with their respective vegetation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The<\/span><b> largest populations <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of tortoises are found on <\/span><b>grasslands called \u201cplatins.\u201d<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Their heavy grazing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">has <\/span><b>formed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a special kind of <\/span><b>grassland habitat called \u201ctortoise turf.\u201d\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Aldabra Giant Tortoise <\/b><b>Features<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They can measure over 120 cm, reaching weights of over 250 kg.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Males <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are<\/span><b> considerably larger than females<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and have<\/span><b> longer, thicker tails.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They range in <\/span><b>color <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from<\/span><b> dark gray to black.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their <\/span><b>carapace <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(or upper shell) is <\/span><b>highly domed and thick, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with a <\/span><b>small neck plate <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that is usually visible, a feature absent in other species of giant tortoises.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They have <\/span><b>very long necks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to aid in food gathering.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their legs are short and thick, often covered with bony scales.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their <\/span><b>heads <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">are<\/span><b> relatively small, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pointed, and covered by scales.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lifespan: It is <\/span><b>among the longest-living vertebrates<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with many individuals living <\/span><b>over 100 years <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and some believed to exceed 150 years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Aldabra Giant Tortoise <\/b><b>Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is classified as &#8216;<b>Vulnerable<\/b>&#8216; under the IUCN Red List.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aldabra Giant Tortoise  is the second-largest species of land tortoise in the world, after the Galapagos giant tortoise. Read more about Aldabra Giant Tortoise, Habitat and Distribution, Features, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":110556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8403,21,22,23],"class_list":["post-20168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-aldabra-giant-tortoise","tag-prelims-pointers","tag-upsc-current-affairs","tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20168"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110605,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20168\/revisions\/110605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}