The world’s oldest known tortoise is alive and well after it was revealed a widely circulated social media post claiming he died was a hoax. 

The fans of shelled icon Jonathan were left heartbroken amid reports he had died on the island of St Helena yesterday at the age of 193. 

An account on X claimed to be vet Joe Hollins, who had cared for the tortoise, saying they were ‘heartbroken to share’ that Jonathan had died. 

However, Hollins came forward to dispel the rumours, telling USA Today: ‘Jonathan the tortoise is very much alive.

‘I believe on X the person purporting to be me is asking for crypto donations, so it’s not even an April Fool joke. It’s a con.’ 

A spokesperson for the Friends of the British Overseas Territories also told the BBC that the beloved reptile was ‘alive and well’. 

The tortoise’s exact age is not known; however, an image from 1882 indicates he was fully grown when he first arrived on St Helena, suggesting he was around 50 at the time. 

So at the time of his birth, Queen Victoria had yet to take the British throne, Charles Darwin had not visited the Galapagos, no one had heard of budding author Charles Dickens, and Germany was a chaotic collection 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.

At just 47 square miles, St Helena is a third of the size of the Isle of Wight and around the same size as Disney World Orlando.

Its nearest landmass is Ascension Island, which is 807 miles to the north west.

Given he has spent more time on this earth than most, Jonathan has lived a high-octane life so far, meeting some of the world’s most famous people and enjoying his sun-soaked home.

The tortoise welcomed the future Queen Elizabeth II, as well as George VI and the Queen Mother, to the British overseas territory of St Helena in 1947.

He has also met an array of famous faces, including the late Duke of Edinburgh and, more recently, House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, where he was awarded a Guinness World Record certificate recognising him as the oldest known land animal in the world.

In 1957, Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, fed Jonathan – then 125 – during a trip to St Helena. 

Following the death of Darwin’s beloved Harriet, a 175-year-old giant Galapagos Land tortoise, in 2005 in Australia, Jonathan was recognised as the world’s oldest living land animal.

But fears started mounting that he was letting himself go when he was around 184 in the mid-2010s.

In response, he turned over a new leaf and allowed his vet to give him his first-ever bath.

He came out of his shell after centuries of grime were painstakingly scrubbed off his back with a loofah, soft brush and surgical soap. 

The vet carefully scrubbed each of the segments of Jonathan’s shell, known as scutes, and removed black sludge and bird droppings while the tortoise sedately chewed on grass. 

Around the same time, he was also placed on a special high-calorie diet as it was feared his health was on the wane. 

The current Duke of Edinburgh encountered the world’s oldest living land animal back in 2024, crouching down to meet Jonathan as the tortoise stretched his neck to take a closer look at the visiting royal on the remote South Atlantic island.