At 190, Jonathan the Tortoise Is the World’s Oldest Living Land Animal Cathy Free - The Washington Post
go to original January 31, 2022

Jonathan the tortoise, 190, and his caretaker, Joe Hollins, 64, on St. Helena island. (Tina Lucy)

Jonathan the tortoise has lived on one of the most remote islands in the world for 140 years. He has become somewhat of a media star recently, as he just got a lofty distinction: the oldest living land animal in the world.

Jonathan is turning 190 this year. Well, that’s the best guess about the age of the 440-pound chelonian.

“To be honest, I suspect he’s older, but we can never know,” said Joe Hollins, the veterinarian who cares for Jonathan on St. Helena island, a tiny volcanic British territory more than a thousand miles off the coast of Africa.

Jonathan has spent most of his life wandering (albeit slowly) with three other land tortoises around the grounds of the St. Helena governor’s residence, Plantation House.

Jonathan is estimated to have hatched in 1832, according to a letter that mentions he arrived “fully grown” on St. Helena in 1882 from the Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean, he said. “Fully grown” in turtle context meant at least 50 years, Hollins said.

A photo taken between 1882 and 1886 shows Jonathan grazing at Plantation House, where he’d been presented to the governor of St. Helena as a gift, according to Hollins.



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