San Diego Zoo’s Gramma, a Galapagos tortoise, dies at 141 : NPR

No one knows when Gramma the Galapagos tortoise was born on that volcanic chain of Pacific islands. However, what is clear is that she lived through the fall of empires, two world wars, and the tenures of more than 20 American presidents. If the estimated birth year of 1884 is accurate, then Chester Arthur occupied the Oval Office and there were only 39 states at the time.

It was also the year the Washington Monument was completed, the cornerstone of the Statue of Liberty was laid, and the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary appeared. Queen Victoria still ruled Britain. A line passing through Greenwich, England was established as the prime meridian – the zero degree longitude mark that regulates nautical charts and time zones.

Gramma, who lived for a century at the San Diego Zoo, died Thursday at the age of 141 — “with her family of wildlife care experts at her side,” the zoo said in a statement to NPR. “He was being expertly supported for his ongoing conditions related to his age, and the wildlife health and care teams made the difficult and compassionate decision to say goodbye.”

Gramma became an attraction and favorite at the zoo after arriving there from the Bronx Zoo in New York in 1928 after being brought from the Galapagos.

It seems as if Gramma was largely oblivious to the tumultuous times she was living through. According to Steven Austad, a biology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, this may be the key to their longevity.

“They live very slow lives,” says Austad, author of . Methuselah’s Zoo: What Nature Can Teach Us About Living Long, Healthy Lives“Since biological processes cause damage that causes aging in all species, that slower process leads to longer life,”

how tall is? For comparison, NPR reported the death of a Galapagos tortoise at the Reptile Garden in Rapid City, SD in 2011 at about 130 years of age, and a tortoise named Lonesome George in the Galapagos died in 2012 at “more than 100 years of age.” In 2015, “Speed” died at the San Diego Zoo at the age of approximately 150. We also reported on the 135th birthday. (and the first Father’s Day) earlier this year for Goliath at Zoo Miami.

“You can boil it down to ‘driving fast, dying young’ or ‘growing old gracefully,'” says Stephen Blake, an assistant professor of biology at Saint Louis University who has studied giant tortoises, which he says “are definitely like a Prius driver.”

He says their bodies have a unique ability to effect “physiological oil changes” that helps them clear toxic compounds that build up over time.

A few years ago, during Gramma’s 138th birthday “Shelabration,” the zoo posted this video.

Gramma was described as the “queen of the zoo” and a “sweet and shy turtle,” according to the zoo’s statement. “(He) quietly impacted the lives of countless people over nearly a century in San Diego as an incredible ambassador for reptile conservation around the world.”

Blake says Galapagos tortoises are believed to have come to the islands by water from the South American mainland. “They have a long neck … that can be used like a snorkel. They’re buoyant and they’re stable because they’re bell-shaped,” he says. “Once in the ocean … they can survive a long sea journey, which would probably take six weeks or something like that, to get from the South American mainland to the Galapagos.”

He says geneticists believe the entire population in the Galapagos originated from a single female who arrived in the island chain about 2 million to 3 million years ago. “Giant tortoises – females can store sperm for about seven years,” says Blake.

Male Galapagos tortoises can weigh more than 500 pounds, with females weighing about half that. The length of the male can be up to 6 feet. However, Blake says “the jury is out” on whether Galapagos tortoises are actually large in the evolutionary sense because the South American mainland once hosted species that were larger.

There are 15 subspecies of Galapagos tortoises in the islands, three of which are considered extinct.

Gramma was born just a few years after Charles Darwin’s death, but her parents and the famous scientist could theoretically have met each other during Darwin’s time. Blake says, a visit to the islands on HMS Beagle in 1835.

He says, “It’s very likely that there were tortoises alive in the Galapagos when Darwin was there. Whether he saw them, who knows.”