LOS ANGELES (AP) — After more than a century of chowing down on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galápagos tortoise Gramma, the San Diego Zoo’s oldest resident, has died.
Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about 141 years old, zoo officials said. She died on November 20th.
It’s not clear exactly when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo, but zoo officials say it came from the Bronx Zoo in either 1928 or 1931 as part of their first batch of Galapagos tortoises.
As the world changed around her, she delighted visitors with her sweet and shy personality. She lived through two World Wars and 20 American Presidents.
Her care specialists affectionately called her “the Queen of the Zoo.” She had been suffering from age-related bone conditions that had recently progressed before she was euthanized, the zoo said.
Many visitors have commented on social media about visiting Gramma for the first time when they were young, and being able to return years later with their children.
Cristina Park, 69 years old, said that one of her first childhood memories was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was 3 or 4 years old and riding on the back of a turtle. That’s no longer allowed, but the experience inspired her to keep a small desert tortoise as a pet and learn more about tortoise conservation.
“It’s amazing that they managed to survive so long,” said Park. “And yet they are still there.”
Galapagos tortoises can live for over 100 years in the wild, and close to twice that in captivity.
The oldest known Galapagos tortoise was named Harriet, who lived at the Australia Zoo until the age of 175. She was collected from the Galapagos Islands in 1835, when she was only the size of a dinner plate, according to the zoo. This means that it hatched somewhere around 1830, and died in 2006.
The Galapagos tortoises include 15 subspecies of tortoises from the islands, three of which were considered extinct. The rest are all vulnerable or critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Concerted efforts have been made to breed these tortoises in captivity over the past few decades, with more than 10,000 young released into the wild since 1965, according to the Galapagos Conservancy. Some subspecies have been brought back from the brink of extinction.
In April, four Galapagos tortoises were born at the Philadelphia Zoo to first-time parents who were approximately 100 years old, a first in the zoo’s history. In June, Zoo Miami resident and Galapagos tortoise Goliath became a father for the first time at the age of 135.