14/06/2024
"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."
Jonathan the tortoise, the world's oldest living land animal, is 191.
Born around 1832 — or perhaps even earlier — Jonathan has lived through the coronation of Queen Victoria and seven other British monarchs, the inauguration of 40 U.S. presidents, the invention of the telegraph, the advent of flight, two World Wars, the Space Race, and the rise of the internet.
Though he has now lost his sense of smell and is nearly blind from cataracts, he still enjoys his favorite activities: sunbathing, sleeping, eating bananas, and mating with the much younger giant tortoises who live on the island of St. Helena with him.
