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Galileo, a multi-centenarian tortoise
In captivity, in a private garden named "Domaine de Fontenay" just outside Amber Mountain. Their website claims an age of 250-300 years. From the Wikipedia page, this seems unlikely. The species has the capability to live over 200 years, but the claim of 250-300 can not be verified and is way outside documented cases.
As an indication of size, for an average-sized male human, in this photo the head would be around chest-level. It's quite a beast. I'm not sure what it weighs, but it can easily carry a human around, it will hardly notice you. This species (or its related species) no longer occurs in Madagascar natively, but there are plans to introduce them again.
As for Domaine de Fontenay, it left us with a bad feeling. This animal's living situation was not great. We also saw a crowned lemur (a rare locally endemic lemur) chained and carried around like a pet, likely to collect money. So fuck Domaine de Fontenay, don't go there.
The Aldabra giant tortoise, from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world. Historically, giant tortoises were on many of the western Indian Ocean islands, as well as Madagascar, and the fossil record indicates giant tortoises once occurred on every continent and many islands with the exception of Australia and Antarctica.
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