Tortoise Parade

Just follow Speedy =]

BALBOA PARK — Contrary to conventional wisdom, even a 100-year-old tortoise will move pretty fast — if there’s a yam in front of him.

The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park wrangled its entire herd of 17 endangered Galápagos tortoises into a trailer yesterday morning for relocation to temporary quarters while their longtime home gets a $1 million makeover.

Moving the 400- to 600-pound reptiles — including some that have lived in the exhibit since 1928 — required coaxing, prodding and, occasionally, a well-placed shove on a shell.

“They can be stubborn,” said zookeeper Jorge Chavez.

But mostly, the yams worked. Keepers tossed the chopped treats in front of the tortoises, which hustled forward with their bent-legged crawl to gobble the chunks in toothless, beaklike mouths.

Using this method, and a lot of thumping on shells with sticks, the zoo staff was able to load the tortoises onto a trailer and haul them to the facility’s hospital compound. The reptiles will stay there until summer.

“Because of their size, you don’t just pick up one of these,” said zoo herpetology curator Donal Boyer, adding that the sticks don’t hurt the tortoises.

“It’s more of an acoustic thing,” he said. “They are sensitive. They can feel, and they can definitely hear something tapping on their shell.”

Renovation of the exhibit will bring a new heated barn for the coldblooded creatures, a shallow pond for baths and a “contact zone” where zoo-goers can touch the tortoises amid supervision. Completion is expected around July.

Note to future visitors: The ancient-looking creatures may appear scary, but they like to get their leathery necks scratched. Some varieties of tortoises have longer necks, which they can extend more than a foot from their shells.

“They definitely all have their own kind of personalities,” Boyers said. “Some are more shy than the others.”

They also have quirky names. The oldest is called Speedy.

San Diego’s tortoise herd grew out of a 1920s expedition to the Galápagos Islands off Ecuador, the zoo’s officials said.

Four American zoos received tortoises from that trip to launch breeding programs for the species, which has become endangered due to habitat loss and the introduction of non-native predators in the tortoises original environment.

The San Diego Zoo program has produced more than 90 babies since then. The height of breeding was the 1960s, when herd members were more spry. With the new exhibit, zoo officials hope to bring in younger tortoises to reinvigorate the birthrate.

Now, back to the conventional-wisdom thing. The short, squat tortoises can surprise visitors with their relatively quick movements.

“The only thing is you don’t want to get trapped between them, or against the wall,” Boyer said as he jumped out of the way of an oncoming tortoise.