August 23: Tortoise in the mud

The zoo has a new pair of large tortoises. They're covered with impressive spikes and spines, like dinosaur tortoises! But I'm still most fond of the giant tortoises. They're so huge and the male especially seems so wise. Today I took photos of the female, who appeared to be doing laps around the enclosure. (I didn't need to use an action setting on the camera, at least.) I noticed she had a lot of greenish brown mud on her legs.



The enclosure has a broad, shallow concrete dip that's filled with clear water, and soil area below it where I suppose the overflow goes. I have never seen the tortoises set claw in the concrete pond, but they seem to love the mud pit. They will sit in it for hours, as far as I can tell, their toes digging into the mud, their wrinkled heads and necks partially submerged in the brown, murky water. If I were a tortoise, I think I'd prefer the mud, too.