Extremely ancient

A while ago I came across this interesting story in The China Mail (18 June 1947):

“Canton Loses Its Tortoise The ‘City of Rams’ has lost its 1,000-year-old giant tortoise, which died yesterday, according to Chinese press dispatches from Canton. The tortoise, originally from the Paracel Islands, was one of the main attractions in Canton’s Han Min Public Park. With its passing away, the City Government’s daily budget has been reduced by CNC $4,000, the amount which had to be paid out daily for the tortoise’s meals.”

Nowadays there are no giant tortoises in the Paracel Islands in the South China Sea, though in Beijing there are large statues of tortoises dating from the Ming Dynasty (AD 1368-1644) that look somewhat like the ones found in the Galapagos Islands. However, according to the Vietnamese author Le Qui Don (1726-1784) in his work Phu Bien Tap Luc (‘Miscellaneous Records on the Pacification of the Frontiers’), there were giant tortoises in the Paracel Islands in those days. More about these and other tortoise and turtle anomalies can be found in Bio Fortean Notes vol.3 (Coachwhip Publications, 2013). A quick online search found that the oldest modern-day tortoise died in Oyo state, Nigeria, in 2019, aged 344.

Richard Muirhead

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