By Jaafar Jaafar
Shortly after the return of Emir of Katsina Muhammadu Dikko from his first visit to London in 1921, the emir sent two giant tortoises to London zoo. The monarch was regaled by a collection of Aldabra and Galapagos Islands tortoises he saw at the London zoo. He then offered to donate to the zoo a different species he had in Katsina. The emir was apparently paying back to the zoo which donated peacocks to his beautiful gardens in Katsina.
The emir’s two large African tortoises (spurred tortoise or Testudo calcarata) arrived the Zoological Gardens, London in December 1921. The tortoises, measuring 29 and 27 inches from front to back along the upper shell, were first transported from Katsina to Kano by road, then to Lagos by rail and finally to Portsmouth by sea in care of Mr P.G. Harris, a colonial administrative officer in Northern Nigeria.
To reacclimatise their enclosure with tropical heat, hot water pipes were channeled under their house to keep them warm. According to a newspaper report, the female tortoise laid 40 eggs, and one of eggs, for the first time in the United Kingdom, hatched on Sunday July 16, 1922 as shown in the picture below.
In August this year, I wrote to Zoological Society of London, seeking to know whether the emir’s tortoises (or their ‘descendants’) are still alive. Sadly, the zoo authorities are yet to reply to my inquiry.
Picture 1: The baby tortoise emerged from the egg on Sunday, July 16, 1922
Picture 2: Emir of Katsina Muhammadu Dikko and his entourage admiring sea lions at London zoo in 1921
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Sources:
Belfast News-Letter – Thursday 25 December 1924
Gloucestershire Echo – Tuesday, July 18, 1922
