Giant Tortoise Shell to Find Home in Zoo's Natural History Museum
Hyderabad: Chanakya, the 125-year-old Giant Galapagos tortoise which breathed its last in the city Nehru Zoological Park, will be remembered by the zoo with authorities deciding to keep on display its carapace in the zoo’s natural history museum. The tortoise died on March 16.
Chanakya’s carapace – the hard outer shell – will be cleaned and placed on display at the museum, zoo curator Dr Sunil S. Hiremath has said. The rest of the remains of the zoo’s longest inhabitant, were incinerated after the post-mortem that showed that the animal had died of natural causes resulting from multiple organ failure.
The tortoise’s shell had not only weathered a span of three centuries during Chanakya’s life time, but also shenanigans in 2015 by a 24-year-old man, Fazal Shaik, who jumped into its enclosure, climbed on the tortoise, stood on it, and posed for pictures. He was arrested by the police following a complaint from the zoo officials after his actions came to light following him posting the pictures on social media platforms.