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The Oldest Tortoises In The World

Until recently, the oldest tortoise ever recorded was called Tu'i Malila (1777 – 16 May 1966), this was a Radiated Tortoise (Astrochelys radiata), so not a Giant, originating from Madagascar. Captain James Cook was said to have given a pair of them to the Royal Family of Tonga when he visited in July 1777. The second tortoise died shortly after arrival. However, there is no mention of these events in Captain Cook’s Journal, so it is now thought that it could have been a gift from one of the other crew members instead.

Other sources claim George Tupou I, got her from a ship which called in at Ha’apai in the first half of the 19th century. The tortoise was then taken to Mu’a and kept in a compound called Malila, which is there the tortoise got her name. Sālote Tupou III moved the tortoise to a new home in the Royal Palace around 1921. The poor tortoise was kicked by a horse and run over several times, which left it blind and badly wounded on the right hand side.

Tu'i Malila means King Malila in the Tongan language. However when it was examined after the tortoises death, aged over 189 it was suggested that it was actually a female so maybe that should have been Queen Malila. She met the late Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was one of the first animals shown to her on the Royal Tour. The body has been preserved and is on display at the Royal Palace of Tonga.

It makes you wonder how much longer the tortoise would have lived, if it had not had to endure those injuries.

The Current Oldest Living Tortoise in The World

The current, oldest living land animal is a Giant tortoise, named Jonathan, who is 191 years old and he is a Seychelles Giant tortoise, which is a subspecies of the Aldabra Giant Tortoise. Guinness world records have recognised him as the oldest ever Chelonian recorded, a category which includes all turtles, terrapins, and tortoises. However, he is not the oldest living animal on earth, as there are many much older ones in the oceans, and some of those claim to be immortal.

It is believed that he was hatched around 1832, when King William IV was on the throne and Queen Victoria was just a teenage Princess, however, she died 120 years ago, in her eighties and Jonathan is still going strong! He is another one that has actually met the late Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother, when they visited his island during a Royal Tour.

He lives on the Island of Saint Helena, which is a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. He arrived at Saint Helena in 1882, from the Seychelles, along with 3 other tortoises, as a fully mature adult, which means he was at least 50 years old. He lives in the grounds of Plantation House, the Governors official residence, and is cared for by the Government, along with 3 other Giant Tortoises named David, Emma and Fred. He has outlived 31 Governor terms on Saint Helena.

Unfortunately Jonathan’s health has deteriorated, in his advanced years, and he is blind from cataracts and has lost his sense of smell, so he cannot smell his food. Nevertheless, after such a long time living there, he knows his territory so well that he moves about the large paddock confidently and grazes the grass with no problems. Apparently, he still has good hearing and he knows the sound of the keepers footsteps approaching with food, and he has a very good appetite.

In 2009, it was discovered that his beak was crumbly and soft and that he was losing weight, as a consequence of not being able to eat properly with it. So, it was decided to hand feed him, once a week, by his keepers to ensure that he has the nutrition he needs to keep him healthy. It seems that the extra weekly food made a big difference and his beak has regrown its sharp edge. Jonathan enjoys carrots, lettuce (his favourite), apples, guava, bananas, cabbage, and pears. We think you will all agree that he has earned the right to spend most of his days, eating whatever he wants, sleeping and mating.

Jonathan as he is now

Jonathan in 1882 aged at least 50 years old

he’s the one on the left)

The Oldest Galapagos Tortoise Known

The Oldest Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis niger, specifically a western Santa Cruz tortoise C. n. porteri) was called Harriet, although she was originally named Harry. She lived in Steve and Terri Irwins Australia Zoo, in Beerwah in Queensland.. She was born around 1830 in Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands and died 23 June 2006 (aged 175–176)

Harriet was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin during his 1835 visit to the Galápagos Islands, as part of his round-the-world survey expedition She was transported to England, and then taken to her final home, Australia, by John Clements Wickham, the retiring captain of the Beagle, on whose ship Darwin had sailed. However, doubt is cast on this story by the fact that Darwin had never visited Santa Cruz, the island that Harriet originally came from.

In August 1994, a historian from Mareeba published a letter in the local newspaper about two tortoises he remembered at the Botanic Gardens in 1922 and that the keepers of the time were saying that the tortoises had arrived at the Gardens in 1860 as a donation from John Clements Wickham, who was the first lieutenant (and later captain) of HMS Beagle, under Fitzroy during the voyage of the Beagle in 1835.

Wickham actually brought three tortoises (named Tom, Dick and Harry) to Australia when he arrived, after retiring from the Royal Navy in 1841; these lived at Newstead House from 1841 to 1860. Records show that the tortoises were donated to the Botanic Gardens in 1860 when Wickham retired as Government Resident of Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) and left Australia for Paris.

There is evidence from letters that Charles Darwin was aware that Wickham had these tortoises, as he sent a letter to Huxley in 1860 informing him that he should speak with Wickham in Paris about the last of the tortoises from the 1835 expedition because he had them. This makes it at least possible that the three tortoises at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens were personally collected by Darwin.

It is thought that as many as 40 tortoises were stowed aboard Beagle. Some were slaughtered for food, others were kept as souvenirs by crew members, a few as scientific specimens. Once Beagle returned to England, the care of these large creatures became burdensome, so they were adopted by a local museum. There is no evidence that Darwin kept any of them as a pet in his home.

That the species Harriet represents was not from one of the islands visited by Darwin is not actually problematic. Darwin definitely collected tortoises on San Cristobal, San Salvador, and Santa Maria; however, the species on Santa Maria (C. n. niger) was, in fact, already nearing extinction when Darwin visited the islands, having been killed and eaten by prisoners on the prison colony there. Yet Darwin still collected tortoises on Santa Maria: the tortoises he found had been retrieved by the prisoners from other islands for food and Darwin collected some of these before they reached the stewpot. Hence they were a mixture of subspecies from a number of islands. Harriet, as a C. n. porteri, is from Santa Cruz. The skeleton of one of the other tortoises (Tom), who died in 1942, is still in the Queensland Museum and has been identified as a C. n. chathamensis (from San Cristobal) and was also found to be a female.

Darwin often referred to these tortoises as ‘Turpins’ and the tortoises collected by Darwin were all recorded in Fitzroy's journals of the voyage, including their measurements. As they averaged 11 inches (280 mm) in length, and this represented an approximate age of 5 years for the species, making Harriet's year of birth estimated at 1830.

Harriet died in her enclosure on 23 June 2006 of heart failure following a short illness. Harriet was said to be very good-natured. She loved the attention of humans and enjoyed it when people patted her on the shell. Harriet spent the majority of her day napping at her home pond. Her favourite food was hibiscus flowers.

Harriet in 2002

Adwaita at Alipore Zoo India

Possibly The oldest Tortosie Ever

Adwita, which means ‘one and only’ in Bengali, is thought to be the longest living Aldabra Giant Tortoise ever. He was a male, supposedly born about 1750 on Aldabra and died 22 March 2006 (aged 255–256) at Alipore Zoological Gardens, Kolkata, India .

The animal was said to be one of four tortoises that lived at Lord Robert Clive's sprawling estate, Laat Bagan, at Barrackpore, in the northern suburbs of Calcutta, where they gave some of his guests rides on their backs - much to the guests squealing delight.

Clive, of the East India Company, was said to have received the tortoises, from British seafarers, following his victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the British East India Company defeated the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies, thereby securing India for Britain.

Robert Clive, the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency, he later became an opium addict, and committed suicide in 1774 at the age of 49.

As the sole survivor of the tortoise quartet, Adwaita was transferred to the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta in 1875 or 1876 by Carl Louis Schwendler, the founder of the zoo. The 250kg tortoise was a solitary animal who enjoyed good health in his bachelor lifestyle, with no records of his progeny. Apparently, he lived on a diet of wheat bran, carrots, lettuce, soaked gram (chickpea), bread, grass and salt.

Although, in his later years, the Zoo was planning a new enclosure for him, he never lived to experience it. Instead Adwaita lived in his small rocky enclosure, in the zoo, until his death.

Unfortunately, his shell had cracked in late 2005, and a wound developed in the flesh underneath the crack. Despite veterinary treatment, the wound became infected and eventually led to his death, from liver failure on 22 March 2006. Adwaita is estimated, by the Zoo, to have been at least 255 years old. The shell remained preserved at the zoo museum, after his death,, whilst the rest of the body was cremated at the zoo hospital.

Alipore Zoo had paperwork proving that he was at lest 150 years old but believed from other evidence that he was closer to the 250 mark. They were planning to have the shell carbon dated but as there has not been any big news announcements about it, either it was not done or it did not provide the results they were expecting.

The Oldest Sulcata Tortoise Known

The oldest recorded Sulcata that we are aware of (thanks to the wonders of the internet!) was at the Giza Zoological Gardens in Egypt and was only 54. Unless a larger one has been recorded recently, the Giza Zoo also had the largest at 41.6 inches and 232 lbs.

The internet article said that -In captivity, the average lifespan of a Sulcata tortoise is around 54.3 years. With proper care, diet and environment, these pets can make it to 150 years. The captive environment always works in the favour of the tortoises. A balanced diet ensures healthy growth and regular medical check-up backs up any emergency condition. As a result, Sulcata tortoises get to live an extended life in captivity.

This makes you wonder what is going wrong if the oldest is only 54! One of the big problems with animals that live a long life, is that they can outlive their keepers and records can be lost. However, we don’t think that young age would be a problem with record keeping. If you know of an older one, please let us know and we will amend this information, or maybe you yourself have an older one -you could be in the records books!!

The Oldest Herman Tortoise

The oldest Hermann’s Tortoise (Testudo hermanni), in the UK was Thomas and during his lifetime Thomas was known as Britain’s oldest resident. Like several other tortoises Thomas was misidentified and he was actually a she. Thomas lived in Guernsey and had celebrated her 130^th birthday in late 2012, before dying a few months later in the spring of 2013. Her owner, June Le Gallez, had to put Thomas down after her leg was bitten by a rat.

Ms Le Gallez inherited Thomas in 1978 from her cousin Grace Hilditch, who in turn had had received Thomas as a gift from her father in 1922. He was friends with a reptile keeper at the London Zoo who said that Thomas was 40 years old, putting her birth date sometime around 1882.

Thomas the Hermanns tortoise. photo source: The Telegraph

The Oldest Spur-thighed Tortoise

The oldest Spur-thighed Tortoise (Testudo graeca), in the UK is another female, born around 1844, who was also originally thought to be a boy. She was 160 years old when she died and along with her longevity had another claim to fame- she was known for being the last survivor of the Crimean War, before she died in 2004. She was also considered Britain’s oldest resident while she was alive.

Her adventurous life was thought to have begun in the Mediteranean, in Turkey and she was discovered aboard a Portuguese ship in 1854. She then became the mascot for several other ships in the Royal Navy. This 5kg tortoise was aboard the HMS Queen during the first bombardment of Sevastopol in the Crimean War. Luckily she managed to survive the attack and over the coming years she moved to a few more ships before retiring from her Navel Service around 1892, where she spent the rest of her life with the Earls of Devon at Powderham Castle in England, where she died in 2004, a grand old lady.

Timothy the Spur thighed Tortoise. photo source: Wikimedia Commons

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