Zoo’s oldest resident becomes 1st-time parent, welcomes 4 baby tortoises

A pair of nearly 100-year-old tortoises have welcomed four baby hatchlings at the Philadelphia Zoo.

“All are doing well, eating and behaving appropriately,” a Philadelphia Zoo spokesperson told “Good Morning America” Friday.

The Philadelphia Zoo made the announcement Thursday, celebrating the arrival of a new generation of Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoises, the largest living tortoise species and a critically endangered species native to the Santa Cruz Island of Ecuador’s Galápagos Islands.

It’s the first time the Pennsylvania zoo has welcomed Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise hatchlings in over 150 years and the first time for Mommy, the hatchlings’ mother and the zoo’s oldest resident.

Mommy has lived at Philadelphia Zoo for the past nine decades since April 1932 and is estimated to be 97 years old.

Abrazzo, the hatchlings’ father, who was moved to the zoo in December 2020, is an estimated 96 years old, according to the zoo.

The first of the four hatchlings, all female, began to emerge from its white, hard-shelled egg on Feb. 27, the zoo said. The four hatchlings are part of a clutch of 16 eggs Mommy laid back in November 2024, and the zoo’s animal care team is continuing to monitor additional eggs that may hatch in upcoming weeks.

The four hatchlings which have yet to be named will make their public debut at the Philadelphia Zoo’s Reptile and Amphibian House on April 23, which is also the 93rd anniversary of Mommy’s arrival at the zoo.

“Mommy arrived at the Zoo in 1932, meaning anyone that has visited the Zoo for the last 92 years has likely seen her,” Philadelphia Zoo President and CEO Jo-Elle Mogerman, Ph.D., said in a statement. “Philadelphia Zoo’s vision is that those hatchlings will be a part of a thriving population of Galapagos tortoises on our healthy planet 100 years from now.”

In addition to Mommy, Abrazo and their four hatchlings, the Philadelphia Zoo is home to one other adult Galapagos tortoise named Little Girl, as well as two giant Aldabra tortoises named Betty and Wilma.