Tortoise Celebrates 69th Birthday With Fruit 'Cake' at Australian Reptile Park
Hugo the Galapagos tortoise celebrated his 69th birthday by chowing down on a refreshing tower of fruit resembling a cake at Australian Reptile Park in Somersby, New South Wales, on September 26, the park said.
This video shows Hugo devouring – albeit slowly – a three-tiered treat of watermelon, cantaloupe, and squash. The “cake” was decorated with a tortoise-shaped apple as a topper and the number “69” carved out of watermelon rind.
The park said Hugo was now considered middle-aged, as he’s projected to live more than 150 years. Hugo has been an Australian Reptile Park resident since 1963, according to a press release.
The Sydney-area park said the nearly 400-pound tortoise was one of the “most popular animals” at the facility, which is inhabited not only by reptiles but also birds, more than a dozen marsupial species, and spiders.
“Hugo is honestly one of the most amazing animals I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with," Daniel Rumsey, the park’s head of reptiles, said in the press release. “He has such a great personality, and, in a way, it feels like he knows we’re celebrating his birthday!”
Hugo also caught the public’s attention when he joined Tinder to search for a girlfriend, the park said. A zoo in Germany heeded Hugo’s romantic query and planned to send Australian Reptile Park a 21-year-old tortoise named Estrella. She was expected to arrive by the end of the year. Credit: Australian Reptile Park via Storyful
