Have you ever thought about what it would be like to time travel? To know what the world would be like before we had electricity, cars, cell phones and television? What would your world look like without the internet? Can you imagine what it would be like to have been alive 192 years ago? The oldest land animal known on Earth would tell us if he could speak. No, I am not kidding. Jonathan the tortoise is at least 192 years old. He even holds the record in the Guinness Book of World Records. If only a tortoise could share the stories of his life.

Jonathan was a gift given to the Governor of Saint Helena. Saint Helena is a very remote island in the south Atlantic Ocean. Scientists estimate the turtle was born in 1832. To get his age, people studied pictures that were taken in the 1880’s. They know he was given to the governor of the island in 1882. By looking at the pictures they can tell he is at least 50 years old. 1882 minus 50 and you get 1832. Fun fact no one really knows who gave the governor the tortoise. He was brought in on a sailing ship and left along with three other turtle friends. Jonathan has had a lot of love and care since then.

The world was very different when Jonathan was born. Buggies were pulled by wagons and Andrew Jackson was the President of the United States. He has lived through a total of 40 presidents. He has met many famous people including the Queen of England. Jonathan has seen the world go from using out houses to indoor plumbing, gas lighting to electricity. He has even lived through two World Wars. To put that into a little better perspective a human being is expected to live an average of 73 years. Jonathan has lived two human lives and is working on his third.

Jonathan comes from an archipelago in the Indian Ocean called the Seychelles. An archipelago is a string of islands, like Hawaii. This type of tortoise is critically endangered. That means they are very close to extinction. They used to live on many of the islands but now they only live on two. Humans have contributed to their population decline in many ways like damaging their environment and hunting them. Hunting them (poaching) is illegal but people make a lot of money selling them for food or as pets. Conservation scientists and law enforcement officers are working hard to save this ancient species of tortoise and their population numbers are increasing.