Being a first-time father can be a daunting task in even the easiest of circumstances.
But especially when you’re an already endangered species and the future of your kind relies on you being able to produce children. Then, it might just be a tiny bit more daunting. Just a bit.
For a 90-year-old tortoise at the Houston Zoo, he was just about to find out he was a father to not one, but three new hatchlings.
And it was pure luck that led the zoo’s herpetology keeper to notice that Mrs. Pickles, a younger female at the age of 53, laying three eggs near the closing time of the zoo.
According to the zoo’s blog post, the animal care team carefully gathered the eggs and took them inside to keep them safe.
The soil in Houston isn’t hospitable to the Madagascar native tortoises, and it’s unlikely the eggs would have hatched on their own if the keeper hadn’t been in the right place at the right time,” the zoo explained in a post.
Mr. Pickles has been a resident of the Houston Zoo for 36 years, and staff said that he had never produced offspring. So there was little expectation and much surprise when he and Mrs. Pickles were found to have produced 3 babies.
And in true Pickles’ family tradition, the three new babies came with dill-liciously delightful names: Jalapeño, Dill and Gherkin. The zoo said they can tell the tiny tortoises apart quite easily – Jalapeño has the darkest shell, Dill’s shell is lighter and Gherkin’s lighter shell has a white dot in the center.
The newest babies from the Houston Zoo. Photo by Houston Zoo
According to the Houston Zoo, the three “little pickles” are especially important since Mr. Pickles is considered “one of the most genetically valuable radiated tortoise in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.”
The zoo said that with illegal collecting of tortoises, along with the fact that this particular species has fewer children than others, they have become extremely endangered.
The trio of babies will spend time in the Reptile & Amphibian House, the zoo said, until they grow bigger and can be reunited with Mr. and Mrs. Pickles.
First-time father Mr. Pickles has made all the more important of a contribution, since he is considered the most “genetically valuable” radiated tortoise in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Species Survival Plan.
Basically, the zoo said it best. “These baby Pickles are a big dill.”
Mr. and Mrs. Pickles have been an item since her arrival to the zoo in 1996.
Watch below to get a dill-tastic look at the dill-lightful Pickle’s family!
