The famous 193-year-old turtle Jonathan was involved in a financial scam (3 photos)

This week, fans of the legendary Aldabra tortoise, who is nearly 200 years old, were devastated after reports of his death on St. Helena Island. But it turned out to be part of a scam to swindle fans of Jonathan.





The Facebook post, purportedly from Joe Hollins, the veterinarian who cared for the tortoise, stated that they were "sad to announce" Jonathan's death. However, just hours later, Friends of the British Overseas Territories reported the hoax, according to the Daily Mail.

South Atlantic Governor Nigel Phillips personally checked on Jonathan the turtle and confirmed that he was "alive and well."

Mr. Phillips said he was just about to go to bed when he was suddenly inundated with concerned messages.

He got up and searched the entire area for the enormous reptile before finding it "sleeping under a tree in a pasture."

The governor immediately contacted reporters and stated that Jonathan was "definitely alive."



It turns out that the world's oldest land animal was caught up in a scam. A crypto scammer, posing as Jonathan's veterinarian, Joe Hollins, announced the tortoise's death on social media and began soliciting donations.

His post contained the code for the $JONATHAN meme coin, and if people used the link to invest in this cryptocurrency scheme, its value could temporarily skyrocket.

The situation gets even stranger. It was later revealed that the fake Hollins also allegedly deceived the person running the $JONATHAN account—a separate account from the Hollins account that posted the news of the tortoise's death.

His account claimed to have donated £2,450 worth of cryptocurrency to the fictitious Hollins, believing him to be Jonathan's real guardian.

Veterinarian Joe Hollins stated that the hoax affected many people because it "struck a nerve."

The veterinarian admitted it was "disturbing" to discover that the scammer had imitated his mannerisms, relying on several of his previous interviews and a book he had published.

Ultimately, a new photo of Jonathan was published, making him even more famous than before. Social media rejoiced that his death had been a hoax, that Jonathan had survived another night on this mortal coil, and was alive to eat another leaf.

Jonathan the tortoise is the oldest tortoise in the world. His exact age is unknown; however, a photograph from 1882 indicates that he was already an adult when he first arrived on St. Helena, making him around 50 years old.

Therefore, at the time of his birth, Queen Victoria had not yet ascended the British throne, and Charles Darwin had not yet visited the Galapagos Islands. No one had heard of the budding writer Charles Dickens, and Germany was a chaotic cluster of 39 sovereign states.

Jonathan was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles in the 1880s and lived on the grounds of Plantation House, the official residence of the island's governor.

He still leads a vibrant social life. In 1947, Jonathan met the future Queen Elizabeth II and her mother.



He has also met numerous famous figures, including the late Duke of Edinburgh and, most recently, Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle, where he was presented with a Guinness World Records certificate recognizing him as the oldest known land animal in the world.

Following the death of Darwin's beloved Galapagos tortoise, Harriet, at 175 years old in 2005 in Australia, Jonathan was recognized as the oldest living land animal in the world.

And when Jonathan was 184, he was given his first bath in his life, washing the dirt off his shell. And they put him on a special high-calorie diet because there were concerns that his health was deteriorating.