Best of Philly Spotlight: How Two Philadelphia Tortoises Stole Our Hearts
Beloved Galapagos tortoises Mommy and Abrazzo became first-time parents — and gave their species a ray of hope.
A baby tortoise at the Philadelphia Zoo / Photograph by Linette Messina
On April 23, 1932, a year before the Philadelphia Eagles played their first down of professional football and 30th Street Station welcomed its first passenger, a new arrival appeared at the Philadelphia Zoo. She was four years old, just a baby, and was born nearly 3,000 miles away in the Galapagos Islands. She came to be known to Philadelphians as Mommy.
Decades passed, and millions of visitors — from Civil War veterans and polio survivors to women in bell bottoms and teens snapping grainy photos on their flip phones — came to watch the 300-pound western Santa Cruz tortoise lumber around West Philly. The years marched on, and Mommy remained, one of only 44 western Santa Cruz tortoises in the U.S., watching the world change around her.
In 2020, another tortoise, Abrazzo, was brought to the zoo. Tall and wide, the then- 91-year-old, 400-pound newcomer enjoyed scratches on his head and eating leafy greens. He was introduced to Mommy and three other female tortoises — introductions that, without hyperbole, would result in a historic shift in the world’s tortoise population.
Abrazzo and Mommy developed a liking for each other, and in the winter of 2023, for the first time in more than 20 years, Mommy laid a clutch of eggs. They didn’t develop, but something else did: possibility.
“Every little step forward, it was … just monumental to me, because it was such a novel achievement,” says Lauren Augustine, the head of herpetology for the zoo. “And getting her to cycle, getting those eggs that first year, was so much hope for me.”
Then, in the fall of 2024 — magic. Mommy laid 16 eggs. They were split into two groups; Galapagos tortoise sex is determined by temperature, so to create the possibility of an even number of male and female hatchlings, half of the eggs were placed in a warmer incubator. In February, four female hatchlings began cracking their way into the world, making Mommy the oldest known first-time mother of her species. Dorothy, Rose, Blanche, and Sophia — the zoo’s four golden girls — were introduced to the world on April 23rd, the 93rd anniversary of their mom’s arrival. Shortly after, incredibly, three brothers joined the nest.
“Mommy is a tortoise that I saw as a child, that my mom saw, that my grandma saw,” says Augustine. “And now, to have reproduced this animal, my son, my grandkids will be able to come to the Philadelphia Zoo and see part of her. I just think that’s like the most romantic story you could possibly think of for Philadelphia.”
Abrazzo may soon head to another zoo, to help revive this dwindling species. But Mommy will remain. She arrived at America’s first zoo nearly a century ago, in the depths of the Great Depression. She’ll live another 50 or 100 years, a timeline so overwhelming, so staggering, that if you think about it for too long it can make you dizzy. And now her children, born in 2025, will continue that legacy, the latest generation in this grand, sweeping spectrum of life that no human could ever comprehend, one that just four years ago seemed impossible.
She’s given life not just to seven tortoises — she’s given joy to generations of future Philadelphians. They just haven’t been born yet.
Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 West Girard Avenue, West Philly.
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Published as “Picture This: Creature Comforts” in the August 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.
