The St. Helena 5 pence coin shows Jonathan, a roughly 190 year old tortoise(de.numista.com)
78 pointsby schleck86 hours ago6 comments
  • dang18 minutes ago
    Related. Others?

    'Jonathan' is the oldest land animal on Earth - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49998066 - Oct 2026 (164 comments)

    Jonathan the 190-Year-Old Tortoise Was Photographed in 1886 and Today - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30099606 - Jan 2022 (77 comments)

    • gnabgib9 minutes ago
      I can't find the originals (flagged out of Algolia?) but this story was interesting.. slight tangent Oldest known tortoise still alive, as reports of death revealed as hoax (6 points, 7 months ago - but there's healthy discussion somewhere, think the original news was 2026-04-01) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620163
  • berlam5 hours ago
    > In July 2023 there was a fight between David and Fredrik which resulted in Fredrik being turned onto his back and left to die, in an area where his plight would not have been visible from the house or the tortoise viewing area. Fortunately he was spotted in time by visiting vet Joe Hollins, who turned Fredrik the right way up with no long-lasting ill effects. This is apparently not the first time recently when a tortoise has been turned over, though in the other occasion it was David who finished the wrong way up, not after a fight but after an unsuccessful attempt to mount Emma for mating purposes…

    His companions. Never thought tortoises have such a wild life.

    https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm

    • binaryturtle3 hours ago
      Shouldn't it be easy to attach a sensor at the belly of the turtle that alarms staff when it happens. Sounds like an actual no-brainer use for modern technology.
    • whyage2 hours ago
      How did these animals survive as a species for millions of years with this flip-over bug in their genes? Why hasn't evolution solved it, for example, by eliminating flip-prone individuals from the gene pool and giving better survival chances to those who can right themselves?
      • bragr2 hours ago
        You're assuming natural selection selects for not flipping over, when in reality, it selects for the winner of the shell flipping contest as presumably without intervention, the flipped tortoise does not breed, while the winning tortoise does (or at least still has the opportunity to)
      • notatoad2 hours ago
        Evolution can’t compete with Joe Hollins
    • hilsdev4 hours ago
      Life would be so much more magical and special if attempting to penetrate your mate could result in a slow death of dehydration and starvation, if not being torn to shreds by a passing bird of prey.
      • hilsdev4 hours ago
        Although these days sometimes women will post your text messages on twitter, which may in fact be worse
        • Insanity4 hours ago
          If they do, you dodged a bullet lol.
      • fmajid31 minutes ago
        Praying mantises are far swifter.
  • nephihaha15 minutes ago
    My father met Jonathan many decades ago. Jonathan has outlived him by quite some margin.
  • mberning4 hours ago
    It is my dream to someday travel to St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha.
    • bruce5114 hours ago
      St Helena has "recently" (inside last decade) got an airport and a weekly service from Johannesburg, South Africa via Walvis Bay, Namibia.

      Before that it was only accessible via an infrequent ship which took 3 days out of Cape Town, South Africa.

      But given the air link it is a lot more accessible now.

      Tristan is still only accessible via sea, and even if you make it there, there's no guarantee you can land. There is no port, so ship-to-land transfers are via small boat, so the whole process is very weather dependent.

      Both islands though have a really interesting history, and are well worth reading about, even if you never get there.

      And these days you can get a flavor of local life via the local newspaper online. https://sthelenaonline.org/st-helena-independent/

      • trallnag4 hours ago
        Always like to scroll through available properties in such remote places
    • nephihaha16 minutes ago
      I'd like to see Ascension Island too, but it is apparently quite restricted.
  • brcmthrowaway4 hours ago
    Is this where Napoleon was exiled??
    • forkerenok4 hours ago
      Yes, this is mentioned a couple of times in the article and in Jonathan's birthday song featured in one of the videos on the page. :)
      • brcmthrowaway2 hours ago
        Jesus, they did things differently back then
  • Razengan5 hours ago
    We should elect him as president