JOHNATHAN HAS PROBABLY GOT IT MADE--STAYING ALIVE IS ALL HE HAS TO WORRY ABOUT I WOULD THINK!
 Credit: Umomos/ ShutterstockSt. Helena Island Is Home to the World’s Oldest TortoiseSt. Helena — a remote British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic best known as the location of Napoleon’s final exile in 1815 — has another (more current) claim to fame: Jonathan, a Seychelles tortoise who is Earth’s oldest known living land animal, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Now believed to be 190 years old, Jonathan was at least 50 years old when he was gifted to Sir William Grey-Wilson, a future governor of the island, in 1882. He still lives at the governor’s residence (31 governors later), along with fellow giant tortoises Emma, David, and Fred.
“While wars, famines, plagues, kings and queens, and even nations have come and gone, he has pottered on, totally oblivious to the passage of time,” Joe Hollis, Jonathan’s caregiver told the Washington Post in early 2022. Tortoises were a popular diplomatic gift at the time because they were easy to transport, since they were stackable and could go without food and water for an extended period. They were also considered a delicacy — a fate which Jonathan fortunately avoided.
It’s much easier to get to St. Helena than it was in Napoleon’s time, but it’s still fairly difficult. One of the most remote inhabited islands in the world, St. Helena is located about 1,200 miles west of Angola and 2,500 miles east of Brazil. Until 2017, visitors needed to board a five-day boat trip from South Africa, but with the opening of the island’s first airport, you can now catch the six-hour flight from Johannesburg every other Saturday. |
