Older Than America

Pardon me, if I stray off topic for a second to give a nod to the dead. Earlier this week Addwaita died at the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta.

A giant aldabra tortoise, Addwaita was brought to India in 1775 aboard a sailing ship from her native Aldabra atoll in the Seychelle islands, about 250 miles north of Madagascar.

Already very large, Addwaita and the other giant tortoises in her entourage, were a gift to Robert Clive of the East India Company, who kept them in his garden for a number of years. She had been a resident of the Calcutta Zoo for the last 130 years, and at the time of her death weighed about 550 pounds.

Addwaita's age is variously listed as 250 and 255 years, with an estimated birth date of around 1750. Her shell will be carbon dated. The average lifespan of an Aldabra tortoise (geochelon gignatea) is well beyond 100 years. Addwaita became ill after a crack in the underside of her shell lead to an infection.

The atoll of Aldabra has been protected from human influence, and is still home to about 150,000 giant tortoises.

With the death of Addwaita, the world's oldest documented living animal is a Galapagos tortoise by the name of Hariet who lives at the Australia Zoo near Brisbane. She was taken from the island of Isla Santa Cruz in the Galapagos Islands by none other than Charles Darwin himself, and is known to be 176 years old.