Jun 10, 2023
The distant shores of Saint Helena, a remote tropical island in the South Atlantic ocean, chronicle a tale of unprecedented longevity: Jonathan, the 191-year-old giant Seychelles tortoise.
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Born circa 1832, Jonathan holds the Guinness World Records-certified distinction as the oldest living chelonian, a reptile order that includes all turtles, terrapins and tortoises.
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The almost-bicentenarian tortoise has outlived Tu'i Malila, the previous record holder, by three years. Gifted to the royal family of Tonga in 1777, she lived to be 188 years old.
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Jonathan, who arrived on Saint Helena in 1882, was himself a gift sent to Sir William Grey-Wilson, a British colonial administrator who later became the governor of the island.
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Incredibly, Jonathan has seen at least 31 governors come and go since making landfall at the British Overseas Territory. The tortoise was around 50 years old when he left Seychelles for his new home.
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Jonathan, who celebrated his 190th birthday in 2022, is also the oldest known terrestrial animal. The giant tortoise’s age on arrival is a conservative estimate, which means he’s quite possibly even older.
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There’s direct evidence of Jonathan being a fully-grown tortoise when he moved to St. Helena. A photograph taken between 1882 and 1886 shows him munching on grass with locals near the governor’s residence.
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‘He is now mostly blind due to cataracts and has lost his sense of smell. Nevertheless he knows his territory so well that he moves about the large paddock and grazes the grass with no problems’ Teeny Lucy, of St. Helena SPCA, explained to Petapixel.
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In his lifetime, Jonathan has seen several major historical events — from Charles Darwin’s breakthrough in evolutionary biology right up to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch.
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