Well, if it's Jonathan the giant tortoise, thought to be the world's oldest living land animal, a bunch of bananas or a few carrots would be perfect. But not too many—overindulging on anything but grass gives him an upset stomach.
Jonathan lives on St. Helena, a remote British-governed island in the South Atlantic where Napoleon was exiled in 1815 and died in 1821.
Jonathan lives on St. Helena, a remote British-governed island in the South Atlantic where Napoleon was exiled in 1815 and died in 1821.
No one knows precisely how he got there. His species, Dipsochelys hololissa, is native to the Seychelles, located in the Indian Ocean—thousands of miles away around the tip of Africa. Driven to near extinction by the mid-1800s, there are fewer than 15 Seychelles tortoises left, all in captivity. According to a recent profile of Jonathan by the BBC, tortoises were once stacked on trading ships as a convenient source of food. Somehow, he managed to escape becoming a sailor's dinner and ended up living nearly two peaceful centuries on the rolling lawn of Plantation House, the governor's mansion, along with four other tortoise companions, David, Emma, Fredrika, and Myrtle. His life has spanned the reigns of seven British monarchs, and he's seen 33 different governors of the island come and go.
