Gramma the Galápagos tortoise, oldest resident of San Diego Zoo, dies at about 141
LOS ANGELES– After more than a century of munching on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, the beloved Galápagos tortoise Gramma, the San Diego Zoo’s longest resident, has died.
Gramma was born in her native habitat and is believed to be approximately 141 years old, zoo officials said. She died on November 20.
It’s unclear exactly when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo, but zoo officials said it came from the Bronx Zoo in 1928 or 1931 as part of their first group of Galapagos tortoises.
As the world changed around her, she delighted visitors with her sweet and shy personality. She has lived through two world wars and 20 American presidents.
Her care specialists affectionately called her “the queen of the zoo.” She suffered from bone problems related to her advanced age, which progressed recently before her euthanasia, the zoo said.
Many visitors commented on social media about being able to visit Gramma for the first time when they were young and being able to return years later with their children.
Cristina Park, 69, said one of her earliest memories from her childhood was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was 3 or 4 and riding on the back of a turtle. It’s no longer allowed, but the experience inspired her to keep a small desert tortoise as a pet and learn more about turtle conservation.
“How amazing that they managed to experience so much,” Park said. “And yet they are still there.”
Galapagos tortoises can live more than 100 years in the wild and nearly twice that in captivity.
The oldest known Galapagos tortoise was named Harriet, who lived at the Australia Zoo until she was 175 years old. It was collected in the Galapagos Islands in 1835, when it was barely the size of a dinner plate, according to the zoo. This means she hatched around 1830 and died in 2006.
The Galapagos tortoises include 15 subspecies of island tortoises, three of which are considered extinct. The rest are all vulnerable or critically endangered, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
There have been concerted efforts to breed these turtles in captivity over the past several decades, with more than 10,000 juveniles 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 baby Galápagos tortoises were born at the Philadelphia Zoo to new 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.
