"Crooked Nose", the beloved 87-year-old Galapagos Tortoise at Bermuda Aquarium, Museum & Zoo, has returned to Flatts after surgery to remove a tumour on his tail.

"He was missed by a number of visitors who inquired about where he'd gone," said John Glynn, Zookeeper for the 87-year-old reptile.

The giant tortoise had developed a benign tumour at the base of his tail which reached the size of a grapefruit by this fall.

Due to his age and the fact reptiles do not always fare well under anaesthetic, surgery had been delayed as long as possible. But when the tumour began to have an affect his appetite and movement, zookeepers knew the growth had to be removed.

"He was losing weight and not moving very much, so we decided to operate," said Dr. Ian Walker, Curator of the Aquarium & Zoo and the veterinarian who surgically removed the tumour in a two-hour operation. "It went very well, and he has recovered nicely."

The 400-pound tortoise was transported by trolley, then truck to Endsmeet Animal Hospital in Devonshire, where Dr. Walker carried out the surgery using heavy local anaesthetic in the animal's tail.

The tortoise spent a month recuperating in a pen at the hospital, but has now returned to the Zoo and is back in his outdoor enclosure. Crooked Nose is the oldest inhabitant of the popular Flatts facility, home to hundreds of species of animals.

He was brought from the Galapagos archipelago, west of mainland Ecuador, to Bermuda in 1928, shortly after the Aquarium & Zoo opened.

Since then, he has been a public favourite, and today inhabits a large cage north of the flamingo enclosure which he shares with a 46-year-old female Galapagos Tortoise named "Sally".

"We are very pleased with his recovery," said Dr. Walker. "He's been eating up a storm-and has also become newly interested in his female companion! The surgery gave him a new lease on life."

Galapagos tortoises, endemic to those Pacific islands, are vegetarian reptiles and the world's largest tortoises.

They can weigh over 700 pounds and live to more than 200 years. Bermuda's captive colony is one of many set up in zoos worldwide in the last century in an effort to help save the tortoises from extinction.