Giant turtles getting divorced after 115 years despite counselling

Bibi and Poldi are calling it quits after Bibi started attacking her mate

After 115 years, Bibi and Poldi's marriage may be over.

The world's oldest animal marriage between the two giant turtles at an Austrian zoo appears to be over after the two refused to share a cage.

"We get the feeling they can't stand the sight of each other anymore," said Zoo director Helga Happ to the Austrian Times.

Each is 115 years old and has been together since they were very young. They lived together at Basel zoo in Switzerland for years and 36 years ago were moved to the Austrian zoo in Klagenfurt.

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"But for no reason that anyone can discover they seem to have fallen out, they just can't stand each other," said Helga.

And no one can say the turtles or the zookeepers have tried. Animal experts have tried to give them counselling and zookeepers have fed them romantic good mood food, but none of it worked.

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Keepers had an idea the marriage wasn't going well when Bibi bit off a part of her partner's shell. Bibi continued to attack Polpi until he was moved. Maybe she wasn't interested in waiting for lawyers to decide their fate and just wanted to start taking part of his home.

Giant turtles don't have teeth, but have a horn-rimmed mouth that can be used as a weapon and each of the 100-kilogram animals is capable of killing the other if they truly wanted.

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This is quite different from most of the animal stories we've reported recently. Usually they involve animals wanting to stay together. In Madrid, zookeepers gave 'gay' penguins an egg to care for. And in Toronto, 'gay' penguins Buddy and Pedro were separated by staff in order to mate with females.

As for Bibi and Poldi, zoo staff are working on a reconciliation. Happ told the Austrian Times, We're "trying to engage the two in interacting and we hope that they might find their harmony again."

If the two can't get back together, there is no word on how much either is going to have to "shell out" for the divorce.

(Getty Images photo not of Bibi or Poldi)