Who knew it only takes a few seconds to fall in love with a tortoise? This short video starts with water running over a gigantic tortoise named Adolf, at the Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley, CA. Adolf looks happy. He’s making sure to soak up all of the water. Stretching out his long leathery neck, it’s impressive how large this happy tortoise is. Male Galapagos tortoises can weigh over 500 pounds, and females usually average around 250 pounds.
Best Friends
Adolf, the tortoise, isn’t alone in the video. There’s a zookeeper there, too, helping scrub the tortoise down (and later feeding him a snack!). The zookeeper bathing Adolf doesn’t mind getting messy to help make bath time fun! Adolf and the zookeeper seem to have a bond. The man is smiling ear to ear as he scrubs off the impressive animal. It’s one of those moments where you wish you had a best friend that was a tortoise too. The gigantic tortoise also appears to be smiling. If he could speak, he’d probably say, “Oh yeah, now this feels good.” Tortoises might not talk to us, but they can communicate with each other in several ways.
Tortoise Speak
Instead of making sounds, tortoises like to communicate with their behavior. The way tortoises stand and stretch can let you know what they’re thinking. In the wild, a giant tortoise stretches its neck as high as possible to show dominance with a competing male. The highest neck is the winner. In this video, the tortoise stretches his neck out for fun because the water feels so good. The water also keeps Adolf healthy.
Shell Care
Bathing helps tortoises keep harmful bacteria off their shell. Wild tortoises will stand in the rain to wash off. If the rain isn’t enough, they’ll find puddles to rinse off even more. When it doesn’t rain, tortoises will use soil to take a dry bath. As Adolf soaks up the water, the zoo keeper scrubs off his belly and massive shell with a brush. Tortoise shells are honeycomb structures that have tiny air chambers. The design makes it possible for the tortoise to carry around their gigantic shells without difficulty.
Snack Time
This short video will instantly win your heart over with the shower scene. But then it gets even cuter at the end! At the end of the video. The zoo keeper feeds Adolf the tortoise a big cucumber. The tortoise loves it! Adolf tears apart the cucumber with one massive bite! You can hear the zookeeper say, “He just bites that thing off like it’s nothing!”. And he’s right. Adolf doesn’t hold back from tearing into the cucumber like a twig. Tortoises don’t have teeth. Instead, they use their beak-like mouth to mash food. Galapagos tortoises love eating prickly pear cacti, leaves, flowers, and grasses in the wild. You can see Adolf for yourself in the video below! Look closely at the tortoise’s face at the end of the video. Do you see the cucumber slobber? This tortoise loves his veggies.
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