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Article: Tortoises ease through life.
- Article from:
- Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK)
- Article date:
- July 29, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 The Daily Oklahoman. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Sonya Colberg
Jul. 29--SANTA CRUZ ISLAND -- It looked as though it had primped for us.
An orange blossom knocked from an African tulip tree lay on its domed shell. It stopped eating elephant grass and slowly turned its head as a dozen of us crept down a wallow and broke the silence with the clicking of our camera shutters. It was almost as big as a bathtub, and its rough, wrinkly skin and slow movements made it look elderly.
But at roughly 80 years old, the dome-shaped giant tortoise was little more than a kid.
"The life span is not well-known yet, maybe 160 to 180 years," naturalist William Cox quietly said. "But probably ...