AP
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After greater than a century of munching on her favourite meals of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galápagos tortoise Gramma, the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo, has died.
Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about 141 years outdated, zoo officers mentioned. She died Nov. 20.
It’s not clear precisely when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo, however zoo officers mentioned she got here from the Bronx Zoo in both 1928 or 1931 as a part of their first group of Galápagos tortoises.
As the world modified round her, she delighted guests together with her candy, shy persona. She lived via two World Wars and 20 US presidents.
Her care specialists affectionately referred to as her “the Queen of the Zoo.” She was affected by bone circumstances associated to her outdated age that progressed not too long ago earlier than she was euthanized, the zoo mentioned.
Many guests commented on social media about attending to first go to Gramma once they had been younger, and with the ability to come again years later with their youngsters.
Cristina Park, 69, mentioned one among her earliest recollections from her childhood was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was 3 or 4 years outdated and using on the again of a tortoise. That’s now not allowed, however the expertise impressed her to maintain a small desert tortoise as a pet and be taught extra about tortoise conservation.
“Just how amazing it is that they managed to live through so much,” Park mentioned. “And yet they’re still there.”
Galapagos tortoises can stay for over 100 years in the wild, and near double that in captivity.
The oldest identified Galapagos tortoise was named Harriet, who lived at the Australia Zoo till the age of 175. She was collected from the Galapagos Islands in 1835, when she was simply the measurement of a dinner plate, in line with the zoo. This signifies that she hatched someplace round 1830, and he or she died in 2006.
Galápagos tortoises embrace 15 subspecies of tortoises from the islands, three of which had been deemed extinct. The relaxation are all weak or critically endangered, in line with the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Concerted efforts have been made to breed these tortoises in captivity over the previous a number of a long time, with greater than 10,000 juveniles launched to the wild since 1965, in line with the Galápagos Conservancy. Some subspecies have been introduced again from the brink of extinction.
In April, four baby Galápagos tortoises had been born at the Philadelphia Zoo to first-time mother and father that had been roughly 100 years outdated, a primary in the zoo’s historical past. In June, Zoo Miami resident and Galápagos tortoise Goliath became a first-time father at the age of 135.