Jonathan is a tortoise living on the British colony island Saint Helena, and he happens to be 186-years-old. And while he had lived 26 of those years with his female tortoise companion Frederica, a recent examination found that the reason these supposedly mating pair hadn’t had any children is because both Jonathan and Frederica are actually male.
Written up by the Times as “St Helena tortoise has a gay old time,” this story is a tale that spans thousands of miles and decades. Jonathan, who’s become a symbol for the island, arrived from the Seychelles islands in the 1880s as a gift along with three other tortoises. Frederica arrived in 1991 as a gift from the French consul to the governor of St Helena, and has been Jonathan’s mate ever since.
Though Jonathan is widely believed to be the oldest critter on land, he still has some time to go before beating the current record for oldest reptile, which is 189 years. (An unconfirmed claim did have a tortoise living into his 250s, though.)
While Jonathan currently suffers from cataracts and has lost his sense of smell, this slow creature and his seeming soulmate still hopefully have years together to come.
