Nature
PUBLISHED
He may be approaching his 200th birthday, but Jonathan the giant tortoise is still keeping Wikipedia editors busy for all the right reasons. Who else can say they lived through 40 US presidents, two world wars, and the era of crypto scammers?
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.On April 1, 2026, an X account impersonating his personal veterinarian, Joe Hollins, posted that Jonathan had died. The post, which racked up millions of views in a few hours, read: "Heartbroken to share that our beloved Jonathan, the world's oldest living land animal, has passed away today peacefully on Saint Helena."
A bunch of mainstream media outlets — including the BBC, the Mail Online, and USA Today — were fooled into publishing obituaries, mourning the loss of the world's oldest living land animal.
However, something wasn't quite right. After reporters from The Guardian and others noticed the post came from an account based in Brazil, a fair distance from Jonathan's home on Saint Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic, some reached out to Hollins for a comment. He confirmed he didn't have an X account and that Jonathan was, in fact, not dead.
“The St Helena Government (SHG) would like to reassure the community that Jonathan, St Helena’s beloved giant tortoise and the world’s oldest living land animal, is very much alive and well,” SHG said in a statement.
“These claims are entirely untrue and appear to be part of an online hoax. Jonathan was seen this morning at his home in the grounds of Plantation House, where he continues to enjoy his routine with the care and attention of the Plantation House staff and the St Helena Veterinary Service,” they added.
So yes, the reports of Jonathan’s death are greatly exaggerated. It was April Fools' Day, after all, but the real Hollins suspects something more sinister was at play.
"I believe on X, the person purporting to be me is asking for crypto donations, so it’s not even an April Fool joke. It’s a con," Hollins told USA Today.
Jonathan is a Seychelles giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea hololissa) that holds the world record for the oldest known land animal. Hatched sometime around 1832, he started life in the Seychelles, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, before being brought to Saint Helena in 1882 alongside dozens of other tortoises. His comrades were lost as the decades passed, but Jonathan endured and can still be seen gently wandering around the grounds of the governor’s mansion on the remote island.
At 193, Jonathan's extraordinary longevity is finally starting to catch up with him. He's largely blind and without a sense of smell, so he must be fed by hand (his favourite food is lettuce, by the way). Nevertheless, the old tortoise has not entirely lost his spark.
"In spite of his age, Jonathan still has a good libido and is seen frequently to mate with Emma and sometimes Fred," Hollins told Guinness World Records in 2022.
