Monte Vista School Welcomes Two Giant Tortoises With a Surprising Movie Connection
Daniel Jordan 
Tank-Sized Guests: Two Giant Sulcata Tortoises Visit Monte Vista School
(CLAIR | Simi Valley, CA) — The newest visitors at Monte Vista School don’t carry backpacks. They carry shells the size of car tires. The guests are Barney and Trench, sulcata tortoises visiting temporarily from Valencia. For now, they’re the school’s biggest attraction — in every sense of the word.
A Species Built for Survival
Sulcata tortoises, also called African spurred tortoises, are the third-largest tortoise species in the world. Only the Galápagos and Aldabra tortoises grow bigger. Native to the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, they live in some of the harshest environments on earth.
Adults often weigh more than 100 pounds. They survive the desert heat by digging deep burrows, sometimes stretching more than 30 feet. Those burrows later serve as shelters for other animals as well. In good care, sulcatas can live for 50 years or more.
Hollywood Names
Their names may sound familiar to movie fans. In The Expendables film series, Sylvester Stallone’s character Barney Ross keeps a sulcata tortoise named Trench, after Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character Trench Mauser. The school’s tortoises carry the same names, a fitting tribute for reptiles known for toughness and longevity.
Lessons Beyond the Classroom
At Monte Vista, Barney and Trench are housed in a secure outdoor enclosure. Students take turns watching them graze on greens and lumber slowly across the grass. Teachers say the visit is more than just entertainment.
“Seeing animals this size up close connects what they learn in science to real life,” one staff member explained. “It’s something they’ll remember long after the lesson is over.”
The school plans to use the visit as inspiration for writing projects, science reports, and discussions about conservation.
Conservation in Focus
While sulcatas are hardy animals, their wild populations face threats. Habitat loss, drought, and over-collection for the pet trade have reduced their numbers in parts of Africa. Conservation groups urge responsible care for captive sulcatas, which can grow too large for many pet owners to handle.
A Living Lesson
For now, the only challenge is making room on the playground. Students gather daily to watch Barney and Trench, pointing, sketching, and sometimes just sitting quietly to see how the giants move.
“It’s not every day you get to share a classroom with a tortoise that weighs more than many of the kids,” one parent said.
Their stay is temporary, but Barney and Trench have already left an impression. For Monte Vista students, this visit is a reminder that learning can arrive in unexpected forms — sometimes with a shell, a slow step, and a name borrowed from Hollywood.
