Latvia: huge tortoises attract tourists

It was a special day for two Riga Zoo tortoises as they took part in the annual tortoise weighing that requires two Strong Men lifting the 100 kilograms heavy animals. The weighing, the zoos ninth in a row, attracted a large crowd as people lined up around the tortoise enclosure to see the event up close. The Galapagos tortoise can reach up to 150 kilograms, therefore the Riga Zoo each year asks participants from various Strong Men competitions to help lift the tortoises and carry them onto the scale. This year the weighing showed one tortoise lost 4 kilograms while the other one gained 3. Riga Zoo representative Ingmars Lidaka said the weight of tortoises, aged 16 and 17, was normal. Considering that one of them has already surpassed the 100kg mark and the other is close to 100kg, and on the whole the tortoises can reach the weight of 150kg during their 100 years long lives, then we can say that during a relatively short time period they have gained quite a bit, he said. After the weighing, the tortoises were given names, Chelsia and Trine, and the two strong men were named as their godfathers. Raimonds Bergmanis said the title means a great deal of responsibility for him. Responsibility not always means financial liability, it means to come and visit, and see how they are doing. Those are things we quite often forget, that we need to spend some time together and we are obliged to think about those for whom we are responsible, he said. Both strong men also received diplomas, special tortoise shaped medals and new titles. Bergmanis has become teacher of tortoise weighing while Viktors Scerbatihs gained the title of tortoise weighing master.