WASHINGTON – Just in time for World Turtle Day (Saturday, but of course you knew that), the National Zoo says that a rare spider tortoise has hatched in its Reptile Discovery Center.
Spider tortoises, native to Madagascar, are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the zoo says in a statement. They’ve declined by 80 percent since 1970, the zoo says.
The tortoise hatched May 10. Zoo officials don’t know yet whether it’s male or female.
Hatching a spider tortoise is tough: The mother only lays one egg at a time, the zoo says, and it has to be incubated, cooled and incubated again.
The parents came to the zoo in January 2014 and this hatchling is from the second egg laid since then. The first, in August 2014, didn’t hatch. The third, laid in October, hasn’t hatched yet.
If all goes well, the zoo says, the hatchling will go on display this summer. For now, a group of adult male spider tortoises is on exhibit.
