Our two Western Santa Cruz Giant tortoises recently moved from their outdoor habitat by the Southern pudu to Puente al Sur, and they love their grassy environment!   They are a subspecies of Galapagos tortoise, and each of the 13 living subspecies have different shell shapes, depending on the ecology of where they are found on the Galapagos Islands. On drier islands, for example, a subspecies may have a saddleback shaped shell and longer limbs and neck as there is sparser vegetation. The more humid and densely vegetated islands are home to larger tortoises with domed shells and shorter necks and limbs. The variation in shell shapes between the islands helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution.   The Western Santa Cruz Giant tortoise is, as the name implies, one of the larger subspecies, with males growing up to 600-700 lbs., and females 300-400 lbs. Come see them at Puente al Sur! – at San Francisco, CA