You’d shell out a fortune on birthday cards for Jonathan
Iexpect it’s a tortoise but, as I turn 40 on Hogmanay, I’ve been wondering just what kind of creature the world’s oldest animal is. And just how old it is, too, of course? – P.
You are quite correct, the world’s oldest living creature is, indeed, a tortoise.
Jonathan is a Seychelles giant tortoise who lives on the island of Saint Helena, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic Ocean. He probably hatched in 1832, making him 187 years old.
To put that into historical context, in 1832, the King was William IV and the Prime Minister was Earl Grey, leader of the Whig party.
A cholera epidemic spread through London, killing around 3,000 people. The Anatomy Act was passed into law, allowing anatomists, to use unclaimed bodies for public dissection and the Archbishop of Canterbury was attacked by an angry mob because of his opposition to the Great Reform Act. On a lighter note, the year saw the birth of Lewis Carroll.
According to the Guinness World Records, the all-time verified record holder for the world’s oldest tortoise is Tu’i Malila, who died in Tonga in 1965 at the age of 189.
Adwaita, an Aldabra giant tortoise that died in 2006 in Kolkata, India, is believed to have lived to the age of 255 years but this has not been confirmed.
In 2014, as part of the Queen’s Baton Relay ahead of the Commonwealth Games, the baton visited Saint Helena and the governor posed for a photo with the baton, alongside old Jonathan.
Last week, you told us about the most viewed video on Youtube, but I’d like to know which has received the most dislikes. – K.
That was a video uploaded by Youtube itself. Youtube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind was a video looking back on the year.
Viewers have voted “dislike” 17, 260,000 times since its release in December 2018.