* Aldabra Group ( Aldabra Atoll, Assumption Island, and the Cosmoledo Group, consisting of Cosmoledo Atoll and Astove Island )

The atoll is located at and belongs to the Aldabra Group, one of the island groups of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, which includes the island of Assumption and the atolls of Astove and Cosmoledo.

The only remaining settlement is on Assumption Island, not counting the Aldabra Research Station on Picard Island of Aldabra.

* Westernmost point-West Island, Aldabra Islands, Outer Islands district

Aldabra was designated a World Heritage Site on November 19, 1982, and is administered from Mahé by the Seychelles Island Foundation.

* Aldabra Island xeric scrub ( World Wildlife Fund )

** Aldabra Island Day Gecko, Phelsuma abbotti abbotti

# REDIRECT Aldabra Island day gecko

The Aldabra Island day gecko, or Aldabra day gecko ( Phelsuma abbotti abbotti ), has been found on the Aldabra Atoll ( Seychelles ).

The Aldabra Group are part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles, lying in the southwest of the island nation, 1000 kilometres from the capital, Victoria, on Mahé Island.

* Malabar Island ( also called Middle Island ), part of the Aldabra atoll in the Seychelles

Astove Island is part of the Aldabra Group of the Seychelles.

Colonies are also found on numerous Indian Ocean islands including Aldabra, Christmas Island, Maldives and Mauritius.

Today, the world's largest population inhabits Aldabra Atoll in Seychelles, where there are approximately 150, 000 individuals.

Unlike the other two atolls of the group, ( Aldabra and Cosmoledo ), there are no predator-free islets except for a few small sandbanks close to the lagoon entrance.

** The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands ( on June 23, 1976 Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches are returned to the Seychelles ).

The granite islands are the world ’ s oldest ocean islands, while the outer islands are mainly very young, though the Aldabra group and St Pierre ( Farquhar Group ) are unusual, raised coral islands that have emerged and submerged several times during their long history, the most recent submergence dating from about 125, 000 years ago.

Furthermore, goats brought to Aldabra Islands are destroying much of the vegetation on which giant tortoises feed or seek shade.

The most massive terrestrial chelonians are the giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands ( Chelonoidis nigra ) and Aldabra Atoll ( Aldabrachelys gigantea ), at up to.

Two species of bats, Paratriaenops pauliani and Pteropus aldabrensis, are known only from Aldabra.

These are the Western Reef Heron Egretta gularis which occurs on the coastline of West Africa ( Egretta gularis gularis ) and from the Red Sea to India ( Egretta gularis schistacea ), and the Dimorphic Egret Egretta dimorpha, found in East Africa, Madagascar, the Comoros and the Aldabra Islands.

Most of the islands also had one or more species of giant tortoise before humans arrived ; 19 of 20 giant tortoise species are presently extinct, and only the Aldabra Giant Tortoise still survives.

In captivity, Aldabra giant tortoises are known to enjoy fruits such as apples and bananas as well as compressed vegetable pellets.

Two subspecies of Madagascar Kestrel, F. newtoni, are recognised, one on the main island of Madagascar and one on neighbouring Anjouan and Aldabra.

Despite this, hundreds of non-breeding frigatebirds of both species are to be seen, these being probably from Aldabra.

Second only to Aldabra are the numbers of breeding Red-tailed Tropicbird, Black-naped Tern and Crested Tern.

There are several species of endemic Seychelles lizards on the island, the skinks Mabuya wrightii, M. seychellensis and Pamelascincus gardineri and the geckos Phelsuma astriata and Ailuronyx sechellensis, as well as a freshwater turtle Pelusios subniger and 12 individuals of the Aldabra Giant Tortoise.

The atoll is home to the world's largest population of giant tortoises, the Aldabra Giant Tortoise ( Dipsochelys dussumieri ), numbering some 100, 000 individuals.

# Aldabra Atoll ( a raised atoll with four main and some 40 small islets )

* 1965 – The British Indian Ocean Territory is created, consisting of Chagos Archipelago, Aldabra, Farquhar and Des Roches islands.

This species, Africa's most widespread member of the genus Corvus, occurs from Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically Senegal, Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea down to the Cape of Good Hope and on the large island of Madagascar, the Comoros islands, Aldabra, Zanzibar, Pemba and Fernando Po.

Aldabra, the world's second largest coral atoll, is in the Aldabra Group of islands in the Indian Ocean that form part of the Seychelles.

In 1810 with Mauritius, Réunion, the Seychelles and other islands, Aldabra passed into the possession of Great Britain.

The Aldabra giant tortoise ( Aldabrachelys gigantea ), from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world.

The main population of the Aldabra giant tortoise resides on the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles.

NASA space shuttle photo showing all the islands of the Aldabra Group

The Aldabra, Desroches and Farquhar Islands were returned to the Seychelles and the United States cancelled its 60-year lease of the islands from Britain.

The neck of the Aldabra giant tortoise is very long, even for its great size, which helps the animal to exploit tree branches up to a meter from the ground as a food source.

A small colony of Aldabra Giant Tortoises on the island is a popular visitor attraction.

In 2009, the government of the Seychelles Islands announced its gift of a pair of Aldabra giant tortoises to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and in appreciation of China's assisting the small insular nation with the expenses of participating in the Expo.

File: Artis-turtles-Photo-by-Persian-Dutch-Network-2006. jpg | Aldabra tortoises at Artis

* Aldabra at the Ministry of Environment, Seychelles

* Aldabra at the Seychelles Islands Foundation

* Aldabra Atoll at the UNESCO World Heritage Site

Blacktip reef sharks at Aldabra tend to be more mobile than those at Palmyra, with recorded individual movements of up to over 7 hours.

Males and females mature sexually at lengths of and respectively off northern Australia, and and, respectively, off Aldabra.

Other exhibits at the zoo include enclosures for collared peccary, maned wolf, bairds tapir, Indian porcupine, snow leopard, Persian leopard, puma, Syrian brown bear, white-nosed coati, ring-tailed lemur, blue-and-yellow macaw, red panda, little penguin, hamadryas baboon, several species of tamarin, Brazilian agouti, Goodfellow's tree kangaroo, meerkat, quokka, platypus, De Brazza's monkey, Aldabra giant tortoise and bongo.

Reptiles and amphibians at the zoo include Aldabra giant tortoise, Burmese python, carpet python, Desert tortoise, European pond turtle, giant Asian hill tortoise, Gila monster, South American red-footed tortoise, and African bullfrog ( Burrowing Frog ).

Aldabra giant tortoise Aldabrachelys gigantea at Bristol Zoo, England

Today it is the home of roughly 500 Aldabra Giant Tortoise, 300 of which live at the Ranger's Station and approximately 200 in the wild.