An Aldabra big tortoise (Geochelone gigantea)named Jonathan has celebrated his 191st birthday on the island of St. Helena, a British territory off the coast of Angola and Namibia.
Jonathan is taken into account to be the world’s oldest land animal. He was dropped at St. Helena from the Seychelles in 1882. He’s finest recognized to have spent greater than 30 years attempting to mate with Frederica, an Aldabra tortoise additionally on the grounds of Ste Helena’s Plantation Home, who turned out to be Frederic.
Jonathan lives on the grounds of Plantation Home on St. Helena. Picture by Snapper Nick/Shutterstock
His delivery yr is ready at 1832, however he wasn’t discovered till 1882 when he was despatched to St. Helena. Different notable occasions which have transpired throughout Jonathan’s lifetime embody the primary phone name in 1876, the invention of the pc, the treatment for polio, the COVID19 pandemic, the primary man in flight in 1903 with the Wright brother’s airplane, and Neil Armstrong’s first stroll on the moon.
Aldabra Tortoise Info
Aldabra tortoises are so named due to the place they’re discovered within the wild, the Aldabran Atoll off the coast of the Seychelles. The large tortoises can weigh as much as 500 kilos, making them one of many greatest tortoises on the planet. The Galapagos tortoise is greater. Largely herbivores, the Aldabra tortoise feeds on grasses, leaves, vegetation, stems and weeds.
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The tortoises have been as soon as discovered on many of the islands within the Indian Ocean. They have been hunted for his or her meat and disappeared from Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion islands till 1900, when Charles Darwin provided to pay half the atoll’s lease to anybody who might be sure that the exploitation of the reptile was stopped. Aldabra Island has been managed by the Seychelles Islands Basis since 1981 as a particular reserve. It has been utterly protected below the Seychelles Nationwide Parks and Nature Conservancy Act, and the enormous tortoises have been monitored each month for the previous 20 years.
