Harriet the tortoise, one of the world's oldest known living creatures, has died in Australia aged about 175.
Senior vet Dr John Hangar told Australia's ABC that Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise, had died of heart failure after a short illness.
"She had a very fairly acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight," Dr Hangar said.
Last year staff at Australia Zoo, where Harriet had lived for 17 years, held a party to celebrate her 175th birthday.
Some people believe that Harriet was studied by British naturalist Charles Darwin.
Darwin took several young Giant Galapagos tortoises back to London after his epic voyage on board HMS Beagle.
Senior vet Dr John Hangar told Australia's ABC that Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise, had died of heart failure after a short illness.
"She had a very fairly acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight," Dr Hangar said.
Last year staff at Australia Zoo, where Harriet had lived for 17 years, held a party to celebrate her 175th birthday.
Some people believe that Harriet was studied by British naturalist Charles Darwin.
Darwin took several young Giant Galapagos tortoises back to London after his epic voyage on board HMS Beagle.
What a life, even if she didn't meet Darwin. And she wasn't named "Harriet" until she was quite old; she was "Harry" until they figured out why tryng to breed her with female tortoises wasn't going so well. Here's a slideshow of Harriet doing all things tortoise.
2 comments:
Very cool!
My friend for whom I do a lot of studio tech work here in LA has a turtle pond, with about 21 or so 6-8" turtles, and an 80 pound tortoise named Rocky, somewhat similar to Harriet, although I believe Rocky comes from somewhere in southern North America.
Fascinating critter, although not really too sociable, and frankly, pretty paranoid. Whenever someone gets too close, Rocky pulls his head back in and hisses pretty loudly, like a balloon being let go. Seems the tortoise dude really doesn't want anyone to play with.
Wow, what a thing to have 20some turtles--and a friggin tortoise. I love that. Hopefully Rocky's paranoid but content. Like harriet, he's far from home. Harriet was taken to England with two other "dinner-plate" size tortoises; they were soon sick. Taken to Australia (by a guy who was on the Beagle or one of Darwin's other ships, which supports those who say she was one of the Darwi tortoises); the other two died over the decades, and Harriet was finally taken by Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin and the Australia Zoo. And though she kept to herself mostly, she seemed to enjoy humans. Let them scratch under her chin.
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