Giant tortoise celebrates his 135th birthday - and first Father's Day
A giant Galapagos tortoise has turned 135 – and he's also just become a father for the first time, says Miami Zoo officials.
Despite multiple breeding attempts throughout his lifetime, Goliath never successfully fathered any offspring. This all changed with a recent unexpected surprise.
After 128 days of incubation, one egg out of a clutch of eight that was laid on January 27 successfully hatched on June 4.
'The hatchling appears to be healthy and has been removed from the incubator and placed in a separate enclosure where it is active and full of energy,' the zoo said.
'Goliath' hatched on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos on June 15, 1890, and later moved to the Bronx Zoo in July 1929. Ultimately, he settled at the Miami Zoo in July 1981.
Miami zoo officials are anticipating a possible world record and applied to the Guinness Book of World Records to get Goliath the recognition he deserves as 'The oldest first-time father in history!'
'Not only is this the first offspring for Goliath, but it is also the first time in the history of Zoo Miami that a Galapagos tortoise has hatched, making this a historic event on multiple levels!' Miami Zoo said Friday.
Galapagos Tortoises can live for over 100 years in captivity, as research has found that they possess multiple gene variants linked to DNA repair, immune response, and cancer suppression.
The mother of the tortoise hatchling is also pushing record numbers, with an age between 85 and 100 years old. 'Sweet Pea' arrived at the Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne, Florida, as an adult in 1960.
The reptile pair share a combined age of over 200 and may qualify as 'The oldest first-time parents in history,' the zoo said.
'Both Goliath and Sweet Pea are doing well in their public habitat and are not aware of their newly hatched offspring,' the statement added.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, a Seychelles giant tortoise is the oldest living tortoise, at 191 years of age. The tortoise, named Jonathan, lives on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘We were all pretty privileged': Allison Williams on Girls, nepo babies and toxic momfluencers
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She smiles. 'But it's not not on the list of things I worry about.' M3gan raises questions about the tech to which we expose our children. 'You wouldn't give your child cocaine,' says Gemma in M3gan 2.0. 'Why would you give them a smartphone?' Williams' son is three and she is wary of it. 'He has so many questions and they're incredible; I often don't know the answers.' The other day, she says, she used ChatGPT to answer one about rocket launches. 'Watching what happened to his face was like when Gemma sees her niece interacting with M3gan. Like, I have connected my kid to a drug, this is so immediately addictive and intoxicating.' She quickly put her phone away and made a mental note to go to the library next time to get out a book. 'I can't justify it, logically,' she says. 'It just felt like an innate instinct.' 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I think it's poisonous [and] it really only exists to make people feel bad about themselves, maybe under the guise of wanting to motivate people, but the impact is so painful.' She laughs as she describes the dishonesty of an influencer making a perfect packed lunch, filled with nutritious food – because it's actually 4pm, perhaps, or because they have nannies – that makes other parents, primarily mothers, feel as if they are failing. 'I would be in a puddle on the ground if we didn't have the nanny that we have, who is the reason my husband is shooting in London right now and I'm here,' says Williams. 'None of this is possible without her, and we're so grateful. I'm just like, show your work. Show me a clock. Like, what day was this filmed?' She is laughing, but she is on a roll. 'I cannot stand artifice about creating an expectation of what someone should be able to achieve that is totally unreasonable. Who is that helping?' 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The Independent
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The Sun
12 hours ago
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Mummified creature with human-like hands found next to severed head is linked to legend of blood-sucking beast
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