SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A tortoise that lived at the San Diego Zoo since the early 1980s and could be about 100 years old was sent to a similar facility in Toledo this week, zoo officials announced Thursday.
Emerson, a 440-pound Galapagos tortoise, was flown to Detroit and driven to Ohio on Wednesday. He took up residence in the Toledo Zoo's Tiger Terrace exhibit.
Emerson, born in the wild, was on loan from the St. Louis Zoo, which has jurisdiction over him, Christina Simmons of the San Diego Zoo told City News Service.
The Toledo Zoo, which years ago sent a tortoise to its San Diego counterpart, put in a request for another one, so St. Louis Zoo officials asked that Emerson be sent out, Simmons said.
She said San Diego still has over a dozen of the species, which can live up to 150 years or so.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as vulnerable because of competition for resources with nonnative animals brought to the Galapagos Islands -- located off the west coast of South America.
The animals eat tortoise eggs, limiting their reproduction, according to the San Diego Zoo.
