Hellabrunn Zoo will reopen Tortoise House on 24 December

After a period of closure for extensive renovation work, the Tortoise House will reopen on Christmas Eve. 

The final touches are currently being carried out and arrangements are being made to introduce flying foxes into the habitat. In addition to the upgraded interactive educational elements, visitors can now also enjoy the warmth of the animal house during the winter months. Following the completion of construction work on the roof, which began in October and required temporary housing for the reptile residents behind the scenes, the Tortoise House will reopen to visitors on Saturday, 24 December. The revamped house will be home to the zoo‘s tortoises, which have an impressive shell length of up to 1.20 m and can live up to 100 years – one of the species, the Aldabra giant tortoise, is thought to have a lifespan of up to 250 years. Its shell grows throughout its life and can be used to distinguish gender. Males have a larger and more elongated carapace (shell) than females. The carapace of the latter is domed.

Other species that visitors will be able to see again when the animal house reopens include a variety of insects, spiders, lizards and the Egyptian tortoises. These tortoises are well adapted to their natural habitat thanks to the colouration of their shell: its bright surface slows down absorption of the sun’s heat and also serves as camouflage. If the animals get too hot, they bury themselves in the sand and may even go into a state of summer dormancy (aestivation) during the hot dry season.

Lena Bockreiss, curator at Hellabrunn Zoo, is delighted that the Tortoise House will be reopened to visitors: "All the tortoises coped well with their temporary move behind the scenes and since their return they have settled in nicely and are enjoying spontaneous trips to the bathing pool. After the holidays we will add our flying foxes to the habitat, so that there will be many things for our visitors to discover on the ground and in the air.

Zoo director Rasem Baban welcomes the reopening of the animal house: "Christmas is the perfect time for us to unveil the revamped Tortoise House to our visitors. Improvements include extensive structural adjustments to the new membrane roof, and we have also expanded the interactive educational elements. The original digital signs have been upgraded to include additional information about the behaviour and threat situation of the animals, which is also now available in analogue form. We wish all our visitors a pleasant experience as they gain a special insight into this fascinating area of the animal kingdom.”

After a visit to the Tortoise House, you can find out more about the Aldabra giant tortoises and the research on why turtles age more slowly by tuning in to the Zoo’s Mia san Tier podcast episode 67: How Hellabrunn Creates Knowledge With Data https://www.hellabrunn.de/der-tierpark/aktuelles/podcast-mia-san-tier.