Animal Diaries Archive

What better way to spend a hot summer's day!

3 March 2006

Well, what a hot summer we had this year! Although reptiles love the heat, it can still get a bit too hot even for them at times. This photo of Harriet, our 175-year-old Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise, shows how she escaped some real scorching days here at the Zoo.

Each year at the begining of the warm weather, we dig mud wallows for all of our land tortoises to provide a place for them to cool off, and boy do they appreciate it! Tortoises actually make their own wallows in the wild, as it provides not only a place to cool off, but it also helps to remove any parasites living on their skin.

I couldn't resist taking a photo of Harriet on this particular day - she just looked so completely content. Some days we had trouble getting her out of there for her daily demonstration; not even her favourite pink hibiscus flowers were a temptation! Our number one priority here at Australia Zoo is to make sure each and every animal is happy, and by the looks of things we're doing a good job.

So I guess it's goodbye to another wonderful summer. Time for everyone here to prepare for winter and make sure all our summer-loving critters are kept nice and warm!