A 182-year-old tortoise residing on the governor's plantation in St. Helena could be the world's oldest known living land creature.
Jonathan, a giant tortoise that lives at the plantation of Mark Capes, Governor of the British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic, is a Seychelles Giant, BBC News reported.
"He is virtually blind from cataracts, has no sense of smell--but his hearing is good," Joe Hollis, the island's vet, told BBC News.
Jonathan lives on the island with four other giant tortoises, who are named Myrtle, Fredrika, David and Emma. Why he came to the island and how he survived without being made into turtle soup for so many years is unknown.
In Jonathan's time, a grand total of 33 governors have come and gone. The giant tortoise was snapped in a photograph dated to 1882 that shows him at full size, a level of maturity that can take tortoises 50 years to reach.
He is thoughtfully cared for on the island and kept at a safe distance from tourists eager to get a photo with him. It's important to Capes "that he should be treated with the respect, attention and care he surely deserves," BBC News reported.
Jonathan could live to be as old as 250, but a plan to preserve his shell in state at St. Helena is already in place for whenever the time comes.
For now, the giant tortoise enjoys living peacefully on the island and consuming a steady diet of fresh fruit and vegetables that includes bananas, cabbage and carrots. To feed him, Hollis makes sure to wear thick gloves so as not to lose a finger in the tortoise's horny beak.
"He doesn't mean to nip me," Hollis told BBC News, "he just finds it difficult to locate his food."
In the past, malnutrition softened Jonathan's beak, which is made of keratin, making it difficult for him to scratch for food. But his regular fruit and vegetable diet has made it as tough as ever.
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