Tortoise Takeover at Jersey Zoo

Colour Heroes were recently tasked with creating a family trail and activity book to guide visitors around the Tortoise Takeover event in Jersey. The art trail is a large-scale event with established branding, and we worked with the brand guidelines to create an engaging trail for families to spot the tortoise sculptures placed around the island. The project focused on four tortoise species that Jersey Zoo work with, the Aldabra giant, the Galapagos giant, the Ploughshare and the Radiated tortoise. The activity book included hand-illustrated tortoises created in the same illustration style as the existing Jersey Zoo activity book and is packed with educational facts, stickers and puzzles to engage children.

Sample pages of the tortoise take over activity book and the tortoise named ‘Gerald And Other Animals’ displayed at the Jersey Zoo. Image courtesy of Tortoise Takeover at Jersey Zoo.

What is Tortoise Takeover?

Tortoise Takeover is an island-wide, public art trail that brings together every part of Jersey’s community and, in turn, protects some of the most threatened species on the planet. With 50 giant tortoise sculptures and 65 young tortoise sculptures to find across Jersey, there’s so much to see and explore!

The Tortoise Trail is an initiative of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, an international charity, headquartered at Jersey Zoo in the Channel Islands, working to save species from extinction. Tortoise Takeover is raising funds to build a new Tropical Islands house at Jersey Zoo that will allow the zoo team to continue the exemplary care they provide for these precious species.

A selection of tortoise sculptures on the art trail, images courtesy of Tortoise Takeover at Jersey Zoo.

Why Tortoises?

From Greek mythology to Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot, tortoises have, throughout history, plodded their way into our storytelling across the globe. The tortoise is perhaps best known as the eventual victor in Aesop’s well-known fable “The Tortoise and The Hare”, establishing these charismatic reptiles as a metaphor of persistent diligence over the excessively confident hare.

Sadly, chelonians (which include tortoises, turtles and terrapins) are now the most threatened vertebrate group and need our help more than ever. The Reptile and Amphibian House at Jersey Zoo is home to some of the most endangered species that Durrell works with, but it is in urgent need of improved and more sustainable facilities. The team has an exciting vision for a tropical house that will allow them to continue the high levels of care they provide for these precious species.

Learn more about the tortoises and turtles at Jersey Zoo here.

About Colour Heroes

Colour Heroes have over 20 years’ experience in learning what families expect from their day out. We help you to create high-quality, educational and affordable children’s visitor resources to engage families during their visit to your restaurant, farm park, leisure park, museum or heritage site. We offer a complete service from original and fun concepts to exciting, completed, colourful, printed resources, including activity books, illustrated maps, engaging trails, activity packs, guides and tabletop activities.

We inject our passion and creativity and blend your unique story in every individual project we undertake. Our first-class, in-house team are experts in site interpretation and creative design. We are proud of our ability to build customer confidence through detailed knowledge of every sector, establishing the purpose of your resources and your expectations from the first call.

Whatever your project is, we can help bring it to life in a colourful and illustrated way. If you’d like to talk to us about any of our products and services, we’re here to help. Contact us on 01347 824 459.