He has outlived seven British monarchs, 36 American presidents and untold numbers of people who bet against him. And this month, Jonathan the giant tortoise added another chapter to his extraordinary life by defeating a crypto scammer.
Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise believed to be around 194 years old, has called the grounds of Plantation House on the remote South Atlantic island of St Helena home since 1882. He holds the Guinness World Record as the oldest known living land animal on earth and appears on the island’s five-pence coin. He is, in every sense, a living legend.
So when a social media account on April 1 this year posted a message impersonating Jonathan’s longtime veterinarian Dr Joe Hollins, claiming the great tortoise had died overnight, the world took notice. The post spread rapidly across social media, prompting an outpouring of grief from fans around the globe.
There was just one problem. Jonathan was absolutely fine.
The fake account had used the announcement of his death to solicit cryptocurrency donations in the subsequent chaos. Dr Hollins quickly confirmed the account was fraudulent and that his famous patient was very much alive and well. The Governor of St Helena, Nigel Phillips, went on NPR to set the record straight.
“He never fails to impress,” said Dr Hollins. “Even when he is asleep, just the sheer size of the fella gets people interested.”
“He is alive and well,” the Governor confirmed, to audible laughter. “May he make his 200th.”
For your clients seeking something genuinely off the beaten track, St Helena is a destination unlike almost anywhere else on earth.
Reached by a weekly flight from Johannesburg, the tiny British overseas territory sits in the middle of the South Atlantic and is one of the most remote inhabited places on the planet.
Best known as the island where Napoleon spent his final years in exile, it is also home to Georgian architecture, dramatic volcanic terrain, whale shark swimming and, of course, Jonathan.
Jamestown, St. Helena
His hearing remains excellent and he is particularly drawn to the sound of human chatter. He has a well-documented habit of disrupting croquet games by sitting on the balls, and in his younger days regularly escaped his enclosure and was brought companion tortoises after officials concluded he was acting up out of loneliness.
He has been blind from cataracts for years and lost his sense of smell a decade ago. None of this appears to have slowed him down.
If you are looking for a story that sells itself, it is hard to beat a 194-year-old tortoise who survived a crypto scam, outlasted an emperor and still gets excited when tourists come to say hello.
