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

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

The second largest atoll by dry land area is Aldabra with 155 km².

Aldabra and Assumption Island Additionally, there are some forty smaller islands and rocks, all inside the lagoon, except a few very small islets at the West Channels between South and Polymnie Islands, the largest of those being Îlot Magnan.

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.

As the largest animal in its environment, the Aldabra tortoise performs a role similar to that of the elephant.

The Sulcata is the third largest species of tortoise in the world after the Galapagos tortoise, and Aldabra Giant Tortoise ; and the largest of the mainland tortoises.

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.

Aldabra is a raised coral atoll more than from Mahé, the principal island of the Seychelles and is closer to the coast of Africa and is northwest of Madagascar and a similar distance northeast from the Comoro Islands.

Around a third of the land area is the island of Mahé and a further third the atoll of Aldabra.

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.

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

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

It is the only known breeding site outside Aldabra and Madagascar for Malagasy Pond Herons.

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

** 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 ).

Uninhabited and extremely isolated, Aldabra is virtually untouched by humans, has distinctive island fauna including the Aldabra Giant Tortoise, and is designated a World Heritage Site.

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

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

The cycle is biennial off Aldabra, where intense competition within and between species for food may constrain females to only bearing young every other year.

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.

The total land area of the Aldabra Group is 175. 91 km².

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

In the Indian Ocean, it occurs from northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to the Red Sea and the Indian subcontinent, including Madagascar, Mauritius, the Comoros, the Aldabra Group, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and the Chagos Archipelago.

# REDIRECT Aldabra Group

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

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.

It is located about 30 km southeast of the Aldabra Atoll and is part of the Aldabra Group.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

The Aldabra Atoll, along with Des Roches and Farquhar, was part of the British Indian Ocean Territory from 1965 until Seychelles independence in 1976.

Birds of Aldabra include the Aldabra rail, the last surviving flightless bird of the Indian Ocean region, and the endangered Malagasy Sacred Ibis as well as large numbers of nesting seabirds.

A Pleistocene fossil from Aldabra, Indian Ocean, was described as Pterodroma kurodai.

At Aldabra in the Indian Ocean, blacktip reef sharks congregate in the channels between reef flats during low tide and travel to the mangroves when the water rises.

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.

Donna was euthanized on Wednesday, August 1, 2012, because of her failing health This building also houses a nocturnal exhibit, animals you would find in a mangrove swamp, a reptile exhibit including rhinoceros iguana and Aldabra tortoise, tropical birds, and the zoos Indian rhinoceros.