Good Friday afternoon, everyone:

Courtesy of Julie Bagley and Jess M.: a wonderful diversion from the continuing disappointments emanating of-late from the human species.

The Philadelphia Zoo recently announced that Mommy and Abrazzo, two 100-year-old Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises, have become the proud first-time parents of four female hatchlings.  Mommy is the oldest resident of the zoo, where she has lived since 1932 – that is not a typo.  The zoo believes that she is the oldest first-time mother of her species – which is listed as critically endangered by the official designator of such things: the International Union for Conservation of Nature

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The zoo wrote: “Mommy is considered one of the most genetically valuable Galapagos tortoises in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Plan”:  a breeding program designed to ensure the survival of the species and maintain a genetically diverse population.. Giving birth at 100? One would indeed think that there’s something genetically important going on there.

The public was asked to suggest names. The winner(s) was (were) the four “Golden Girls” (for our younger staff, a television show that aired from 1985 to 1992, featuring four older women living and navigating life together in Miami – including Betty White and Bea Arthur): Blanche, Dorothy, Sophia, and Rose.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes the wonders of the animal world provide a jolt of perspective. A little like the cosmos . . . or trees . . .  or the oceans . . . or all the other things with which I occasionally fill your inboxes. I think that jolt may be a good thing.

Rip

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