A Fond Farewell for Giant Tortoise

SAN DIEGO, CA—With around 4 million visitors a year, the world-famous San Diego Zoo lost its oldest resident. Gramma the Galápagos tortoise, a big beauty, had reached the ripe old age of 141 years when her deteriorating bone condition worsened. Her health and care teams HUMANELY put her down on Nov. 20. 

Gramma hatched on the Galápagos Islands around 1884. This island chain is in the Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles west of Ecuador. What was going on that long ago? That year, many heavy storms battered California, creating record floods. The first electric commercial streetcar line started rolling in the United States. And the population of San Diego was just around 5,500 (compared to New York City booming with more than 1.3 million people).

A few years old, Gramma was caught and brought to the Bronx Zoo in New York. Some time between 1928 and 1931, the youthful tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo—part of the zoo’s original group of Galápagos tortoises.

Gramma enjoyed the sunshine and lots of food at the zoo. She also liked the puddles in her habitats. During her years there, the zoo has grown to 100 acres with more than 12,000 animals!

“It is astonishing to consider what Gramma lived through in her lifetime,” the San Diego Zoo posted. “This sweet, shy tortoise observed the Zoo’s creation and evolution. As the world around her experienced more than 20 U.S. presidents, two World Wars, and two pandemics, she gently touched countless lives over nearly a century in San Diego as an ambassador for reptile conservation worldwide.”