After more than a century of munching on her favorite romaine lettuce and cactus fruit, beloved Galápagos tortoise Gramma, the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo, has died per the AP. Gramma was born in her native habitat and estimated to be about 141 years old when she died Nov. 20, zoo officials said. It's not clear exactly when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo, but zoo officials said she came from the Bronx Zoo in either 1928 or 1931 as part of their first group of Galápagos tortoises.
As the world changed around her, she delighted visitors with her sweet, shy personality. She lived through two World Wars and 20 US presidents. Her care specialists affectionately called her "the Queen of the Zoo." She was suffering from bone conditions related to her old age that progressed recently before she was euthanized, the zoo said.
Many visitors commented on social media about getting to first visit Gramma when they were young, and being able to come back years later with their kids. Cristina Park, 69, said one of her earliest memories was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was 3 or 4 years old and riding on the back of a tortoise. That's no longer allowed, reports the AP, but the experience inspired her to keep a small desert tortoise as a pet and learn more about tortoise conservation. "Just how amazing it is that they managed to live through so much," Park said. "And yet they're still there." Galápagos tortoises can live for over 100 years in the wild, and close to double that in captivity.
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