Galapagos Tortoise Celebrates His 135th Birthday and His First Father's Day at Zoo Miami
A South Florida zoo's oldest resident celebrated his 135th birthday and his first Father's Day on Sunday.
Goliath, a 517-pound (234-kilogram) Galapagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, became a father for the first time earlier this month, zoo officials said.
'Goliath is my hero, and I am sure he will soon be an inspiration to many others!' Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill said in a statement. 'He is living proof that where there is a will, there is a way and to never give up!'
One egg out of a clutch of eight laid on Jan. 27 successfully hatched on June 4, officials said. Besides being Goliath's first offspring, it's also the first time one of the endangered reptiles has hatched at Zoo Miami.
The animals' numbers were drastically reduced before the 20th century by human exploitation and the introduction of invasive species to the Galapagos Islands. Modern threats include climate change and habitat loss.
According to Goliath's official record, he hatched on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos on June 15, between 1885 and 1890. The island group is located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, several hundred miles west of mainland Ecuador.
Goliath arrived at the Bronx Zoo in 1929 and moved to Zoo Miami in 1981. He has bred with several different females during his time at Zoo Miami, but he has never sired an offspring. The new hatchling's mother, Sweet Pea, is estimated to be between 85 and 100 years old.
Both parents are doing well in their public habitat, officials said. The hatchling appears to be healthy in a separate enclosure. Wild hatchlings are not raised by their parents.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Disney Cruise Ship Rescue Team Saves Girl and Father After Overboard Fall
Crew members from a Disney cruise ship saved a girl who fell overboard and her father who jumped in after her. The Disney Dream rescue team pulled the girl and her father into a small boat on Sunday as the cruise ship was returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from the Bahamas on the last day of the voyage, according to Disney and passengers who recorded the rescue on video. Passengers were alerted that someone had fallen overboard by an announcement over the ship's loudspeakers, said passenger Kevin Furuta in a social media post. 'Thankfully the (Disney Cruise Lines) rescue team was on it immediately and both were saved!' Furuta said in a post to the Facebook group Disney Dream Cruise Ship Group. No information has been released about how the girl fell overboard. 'We commend our crew members for their exceptional skills and prompt actions which ensured the safe return of both guests to the ship within minutes,' Disney said in a statement. 'We are committed to the safety and well-being of our guests and this incident highlights the effectiveness of our safety protocols.'
Al Arabiya
2 days ago
- Al Arabiya
At 100, This Globetrotting Catholic Priest Still Bakes Pies, Enjoys Opera and Performs Daily Mass
Throughout his remarkable lifetime, the Rev. James Kelly has baptized thousands of people, married thousands more, ministered to the sick in hospitals, and traveled the world extensively. He became friends with an opera superstar and, yes, even with a saint. The longest-serving priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of his ordination and his 100th birthday. He's grateful to have reached these milestones but nearly didn't after experiencing a health challenge last year that required life-saving surgery. He feels God gave him some extra time and tries to make each day count. 'The Lord was wonderful to me to give me the health and the strength and the energy to travel to meet beautiful things – God was always giving me surprises,' Kelly says. Born on January 7, 1925, in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Roxborough to a devoutly Catholic family, Kelly's path to the priesthood seems ordained from the start. He loved attending church. Other children dreamt of becoming athletes, doctors, firefighters. He wanted to be a priest. 'When I was 4 or 5 years old, I'd play Mass,' he says, laughing as he recalls that his parents were his first congregants. 'I always had a little altar in my room, and I'd have a glass and some flowers in there, and I'd make a vestment, put a scarf on, and have some candy and give Communion to everybody.' Kelly wakes up at dawn to celebrate Mass at the retirement living community that he now calls home. He listens to opera. He bakes pies. Sitting in his room, Kelly flips through a photo album detailing his journey. He smiles with every page turn, pointing to black-and-white photos of him as a toddler and milestones as a Catholic – his baptism, confirmation, and ordination as a priest. 'I turned down Hollywood!' he says, laughing as he points to the portrait of a dapper young priest, his hair slicked and flashing a wide smile. He also points to the photo published by a Philadelphia newspaper of the time when he climbed, in his Roman collar, to the top of a bridge and dissuaded a man from jumping to his death. 'Nobody would climb there, so I climbed up – it was 400 feet high. It was a bitter cold day,' he says. 'I was able to talk to him and break him down emotionally so he wouldn't jump. I told him 'What's your grandchild going to say one day: Papa, why didn't you take me fishing?'' He points to other photos of the many ceremonies he proudly led during his 19 years as pastor of Saint Pius X Parish in Broomall, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Philadelphia. There are images of him during a vacation in Mexico when he made a parachute jump. Or that one time when he visited the majestic Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil, which he recalls as one of the most beautiful sights of his life. 'Everywhere you turned there was a rainbow, there was a mist … the water gushing forth and spray and the colors,' he says. 'It was, as the kids would say, 'awesome.'' Imagination, he says, is one of his favorite words, recalling that he wrote his college thesis on it. 'Jesus used his imagination to teach,' he says, in what became an example when he prepared his own sermons. He treasures other memories such as traveling to more than 100 countries and meeting Saint Teresa of Kolkata, also known as Mother Theresa. Kelly says the two became friends over the years after meeting in Philadelphia and running into each other at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The centenarian also shared the time when he took a group of blind children to a live performance of his friend, acclaimed soprano Joan Sutherland. 'I've been fortunate to meet some of the most magnificent, good people in this world, and they've been most generous and gracious to me,' Kelly says. These days he enjoys simple pleasures: the taste of cherries, a beautiful song, or his favorite meal – roast chicken with mashed potatoes, fresh string beans, and corn on the cob. He loves learning and often attends lectures on music, art history, and Egyptology at the Normandy Farms Estates retirement community where he resides in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. His apartment is decorated with a painting of the Virgin Mary that he drew with chalk, a portrait of his mother, and a note signed by the late Pope Francis. On his bedside table, he keeps an image of Carlo Acutis, the Catholic Church's first millennial-era saint. Kelly is inspired by Acutis, who died at 15 in 2006. Especially Acutis' devotion and how he used his computer skills to create an online exhibit about scores of eucharistic miracles recognized by the church over centuries. Every morning he wakes up without the need of an alarm clock and says the same prayer: 'Lord, what surprise do you have for me today? I hope it'll be a nice one that I'll love and enjoy. I never know, but I want to thank you for whatever happens today.' After a cup of coffee, he celebrates Mass in his apartment for a few residents of his community. 'When I moved here, I never thought I was going to have a private chapel!' Kathleen Quigley, a retired nurse, quipped after a recent service. 'I just love my faith, and he's such a stronghold of faith that it's wonderful for me to have. I just come right downstairs, have Mass, we talk, he shares his food.' Kelly once ministered to large congregations, but he feels the daily Mass in his living room is as important. 'It's not in a beautiful chapel or church. But it's here that I can offer my love and efforts to the Heavenly Father,' he says. After the final prayer, he always remembers to be grateful. 'That's all I can say – two words: thank you. It's wonderful that I have another day, and I might be able to eat some delicious cherries today and meet people, new friends,' he says. 'God knows what surprises I'll encounter today.'
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- Al Arabiya
Investigation Into Florida Condo Collapse Is Expected To Finish In 2026
More than four years after a Florida condominium collapse killed 98 people, federal investigators have yet to make a final determination of the cause – but they do have some leading theories. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency handling the probe, said this week it hopes to conclude the investigation in 2026. 'We intend for our investigation of this failure to have a lasting impact, save future lives, and ensure this never happens again,' NIST investigator Judith Mitrani-Reiser said in the agency's latest report. Most residents were asleep in the 12-story Champlain Towers South when the beachfront condo building in Surfside, Florida, collapsed into a huge pile of rubble at 1:22 a.m. on June 24, 2021. As the investigation continued, a Miami judge approved a more than $1 billion settlement for personal injury and wrongful death claims from the disaster. Meanwhile, a new luxury condominium is going up at the Champlain Towers site a few miles north of Miami. What caused the collapse? NIST has zeroed in on what it calls 'three higher-likelihood scenarios,' all related to construction flaws that date to the beginning of the 40-year-old structure. 'These conditions existed from the time construction was complete 40 years before the partial collapse,' said Glen Bell, co-lead investigator on NIST's National Construction Safety Team. One possibility is the failure of a connection between a building column and the pool deck slab that never met building code standards. Another is that steel reinforcement was not placed where it should have been, which meant the column and pool deck were far too weak. And a third theory is that work done later around the pool – when heavy planters, sand, and pavers were added – increased the weight load on a deck that was already functionally and structurally inadequate. The NIST report also notes that support columns in the building's basement parking garage had been exposed to frequent flooding, which causes corrosion in steel reinforcements and concrete deterioration. Are there other theories? Investigators did not find evidence of voids in the ground under the building known as karst. Using satellite data, the NIST team found there was no sinking or settling underneath Champlain Towers, which would indicate existence of karst. In addition, investigators found the limestone upon which the condo was built was sufficient to carry the building loads and that testing of the concrete supporting Champlain Towers had adequate material strength. One challenge for investigators was the lack of any available records from the original building construction and not many from its earlier years. How are other condo buildings handling new rules? After Surfside, state legislators enacted a law in 2022 requiring condo associations to have sufficient reserves to cover major repairs. Some residents were caught off guard by hefty fees imposed to cover years of deferred maintenance expenses required to bring their buildings into compliance with the law's standards. Gov. Ron DeSantis this week signed new legislation allowing some condo associations to fund their reserves through a loan or line of credit. It also gives residents more flexibility to pause payments into reserve funds while they prioritize needed repairs. It extends the deadline for condo associations to complete structural integrity studies and exempts some smaller buildings from those studies. 'Now it's time to make the change,' state Sen. Ed Hooper said. 'Elderly people are losing their condos because they could not afford to make the increase in their monthly HOA fees. That's just wrong.' What is being built on the site? It's a luxury condo building dubbed the Delmore, with 37 'mansions in the sky' and a starting price of $15 million. The site was purchased at auction by Dubai-based DAMAC International for $120 million. According to the company, there will be amenities such as a see-through swimming pool, an indoor pool, an outdoor kitchen, a fitness center, and a meditation garden. The new condo is expected to be completed by 2029. Will there be a memorial to the victims? A design for a memorial to the 98 victims and that honors their families was approved earlier this year by Surfside officials and a family committee. But the city's planning and zoning board objected to its appearance and recommended that alternatives be considered. The existing proposal envisions a tall wall of water and exhibition of materials from the collapsed building. Surfside officials say they want to keep the project on track but will consider additional input, especially from the family committee. 'I understand the urgency. But this memorial is going to be here long beyond anyone in this room,' said planning board chair Lindsay Lecour at an April city commission meeting.
