New home for tortoise family

ANIMAL lovers Mark and Romany Gunasekera have donated 10 Indian star tortoises to the Al Areen Wildlife Park in Zallaq, giving the wildlife sanctuary the opportunity to breed the endangered species.

The Sri Lankan couple moved to Bahrain five years ago from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), bringing their perfect pets with them.

Spoiling them with fresh fruit and leaves, the friendly family of tortoises were kept healthy and happy and now, after almost eight years together, they are settling into a new spacious abode.

Romany said: “We both love all types of animals but tortoises have an innocence to them, they don’t complain, they’re beautiful and they don’t disturb you.

“They are calm and easy and just relaxing to watch. It’s hard to say goodbye but it’s time because we’re moving into a flat and we travel a lot.

“We know Al Areen Wildlife Park’s team will take great care of them. Their facilities are so good and we are positive these endangered species will thrive.”

The couple first purchased Sammy, a male tortoise, from an animal souk in Sharjah, the third largest emirate of the UAE. If like magic, a playmate appeared in the family’s Galali garden.

“I was watering the plants in the garden and spotted this little thing trying to crawl underneath the gate. It was another tortoise and we called her Penny,” said Romany. “When I told my children, Marielle and Michael, who are both married and live in the US, they were sure that I must have brought it too but that wasn’t the case!”

Mark, an engineer for Gulf Air, said: “That was the strangest thing. I don’t know how the female just appeared.  She must have been attracted by the freshness of the garden. And that’s how it all started.”

Three years later and the Gunasekera household started to find bottle-cap sized tortoises littered throughout their garden hidden under leaves.

“It took us two weeks to find the baby tortoises because they camouflage so well. We’ve now found out that it takes about 100 days for the eggs to hatch.

“When they do, they are beautiful. There are usually six or seven eggs waiting to be hatched at a time,” said Mark.

“Now, years later we have 11 in good health.”

Tortoises generally have life spans similar to humans, living up to about 85-years-old and some are known to have lived as long as 150 years. Being herbivores they feed on grasses, weeds, leafy greens, flowers and some fruit.  They can vary in size from a few centimetres to two metres and they are generally secluded animals.

Romany and Mark are both happy to donate their tortoises to Al Areen Wildlife Park and believe that they will have a good life. Being a protected species, they can rest in the knowledge that the tortoises’ beautiful shells will not be used to make jewellery.

Dr Adel Mohammed Al Awadhi, the director of the protected area at Al Areen Wildlife Park, said: “We are very happy and grateful that the Gunasekera family has left their tortoises with us. We are going to make a special place for them. For now, we are keeping them quarantined to make sure nothing goes wrong, but, we are going to make a nice, new home for them that they can enjoy.”