Mr. Potato Head, the El Paso Zoo’s oldest resident, has revitalized digs, where he can roam on fresh grass, take a muddy dip in a wallow or stroll into his re-roofed barn to cool down on a straw bed. The barn also has been refurbished to have three separated spaces to accommodate two more tortoises in the future.
Regulars to the zoo had not seen the Galápagos tortoise, 75, for about a year while his enclosure was being worked on. His updated enclosure is one of the zoo’s original grottos, which once housed jaguars, Andean bears and Mexican wolves. The renovation cost $785,496 as part of the city’s 2012 Quality of Life Bond.
The tortoise first arrived at the El Paso Zoo in 1991 from the Oklahoma City Zoological Park and has fathered seven offspring in his life. He is a Volcán Alcedo giant tortoise, a species native to the Alcedo Volcano on Isabela Island in the Galápagos…