Pictures of the oldest land animal in the world, a turtle named Jonathan, which is allegedly more than 190 years old, are popular on the Internet. We decided to check if this information is true.

The story of the long-lived turtle can be found at educational And entertaining portals, as well as on social networks (“VKontakte", X) and on blogging platforms (“Zen", LiveJournal, Facebook*). In the last decade, many media (“Gazeta.ru", "Rules of life", "New hearth", "Fontanka.ru", "Around the world", "World"etc.) in December Every year they release news that Jonathan celebrated another birthday. Some articles and posts also contain black and white photographs of the turtle in his youth - 1886.

Articles about an elderly turtle named Jonathan are popular not only in the Russian-language segment of the Internet. Over the years his story has been told BBC, Independent, CNN and many other publications. It is reported that in 1882 the reptile was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles and presented to the governor. Since then, Jonathan has been living on the island for almost a century and a half and has managed to become one of the local attractions.

In 2019 Jonathan hit in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest living land animal - it is stated that he was then 187 years old. Only one year separated him from the title of the oldest representative of the tortoiseshell family - at that time, a tortoise named Tui Malila, who lived 188 years, was considered such. But in 2022, at 190 years old, Jonathan received and this title. An article on the Guinness Book of Records website notes that during the life of the turtle, scientific progress has stepped far forward: the first photo was taken, the first phone call was made, and the first flight to the moon was made. Meanwhile, Jonathan himself has not changed at all - his main interests are still sleeping, eating and mating.

In other words, Jonathan absolutely exists and has become a kind of symbol of St. Helena, where he spent almost his entire life. It’s even common on the island coin denomination of 5 pence with the image of this turtle.

As for Jonathan’s age, everything is not so clear. It is believed that he hatched in 1832 - this is the date from which his record age is calculated. But in fact, there is no confirmed data about exactly what year the turtle was born. Conclusions about Jonathan's age are based mostly on archival photos. So, in many posts and articles dedicated to this animal, you can see a black and white photograph dated 1886. It depicts several people and two turtles, one of them is Jonathan. By expert opinion, in the photo is an adult, fully formed male turtle, which happens to these animals at about 50 years of age. The caretaker who cares for Jonathan told the newspaper in 2022 The Washington Post, that in one of the governor's letters, written the year the turtle arrived on St. Helena, it was stated that Jonathan was an adult. Therefore, they simply subtracted 50 years from 1882 and took 1832 as the year of Jonathan’s birth, although at the time of the “moving” he could have been a little older. In 2022, the Governor of St. Helena appointed Jonathan an official birthday - December 4.

1886 Source: Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jonathan - Seychelles giant tortoise, representatives of this species often survive up to 100–150 years. The upper limit of the possible life expectancy of such turtles is unknown, because, as noted, the scientists studying them simply do not live long enough to record this indicator.

Thus, the popular story on the Internet about a long-lived turtle is generally true, but it is impossible to determine the age of the animal with an accuracy of one year. However, apparently, Jonathan may be even older than is commonly believed.

*Russian authorities consider the company Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, to be an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Cover photo: Kevin Gepford CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons