Jonathan the tortoise

Jonathan is the other attraction, of course! He lives at Plantation House, which is the official residence of the Governor of Saint Helena. (Try not to think of Dennis Waterman when reading that sentence).

On my social media I joked that 20 years ago my holidays involved diving, jetskis, ziplining. But today:

Jonathan is a Seychelles giant tortoise with an age estimated to be 192 as of 2025, making him the oldest known living land animal. He was a “mature tortoise” when he arrived at Saint Helena in 1882, making him at least 50 at that point.

He was pretty nimble for a 192 year old – he seemed pretty alert and was moving around quite quickly .

The Saints love him, as you get an image of him in your passport when you leave the island.

We also had a talk about the history of the house, which was quite interesting. But we probably wouldn’t have gone if there were no tortoises there.

Friday 18 April 2025, 11 views

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