An endangered tortoise had a geriatric miracle birth — Sarah did it first
The nearly 100-year-old animals at the Philadelphia Zoo recall moments in Genesis
A Galápagos tortoise with her hatchling and Abraham and Sarah with baby Isaac. Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images; Jim Padgett via Wikimedia Commons
By PJ Grisar April 7, 2025
If names are destiny, Mommy the Galápagos tortoise is finally fulfilling hers — just like another aged matriarch before her.
The longtime resident of the Philadelphia Zoo, and her partner, Abrazzo, became first-time parents in their 10th decade, recently birthing four hatchlings in an apparent record for the species. But did Mommy laugh when she found she was with child?
Millennia before Mommy earned her given name, Sarah was told, at the age of 90, that she would conceive against all odds.
“Now that I’ve lost the ability, am I to have enjoyment—with my husband so old,” Sarah said, after laughing to herself. (This was right after Abraham opened his tent to three mysterious guests, which, at the zoo, may just be zookeepers.)
Midrash has it that this geriatric pregnancy was made possible when her name was changed from Sarai — Hebrew for “my princess” — to Sarah.
As Rabbi Aaron Raskin explains in a video for Chabad.org, when the tiny letter yud in Sarai was transformed to a hey, she had the capacity to become a mother, not only to Isaac, but to all the Jewish people. She went from one person’s princess to the entire world’s.
Mommy the tortoise’s success, as an endangered and quite mature mother, is already heralded as miraculous. But if past is prologue, this monumental nativity could change everything.
Could it be that from the Philadelphia Zoo, and a small clutch of eggs, a new tortoise people will rise as a light onto the nations? Will Abrazzo wake one early morning to take his tortoise son, who he loves, to some drafty escarpment and attempt his sacrifice? Will the progeny of this small family be as numerous as the stars in the heavens?
The world holds its breath to witness this history, but there’s still time. Certain Galápagos tortoises, rivaling biblical life expectancy, live to be over 170 in captivity.
