Not elder law: Fabled tortoise ‘doesn’t look a day over 160’
From the Toronto Globe and Mail:
Munching hibiscus flowers and blissfully ignorant of the controversysurrounding her ancestry, the wrinkled old lady marked another birthdayyesterday.
Born in the days when slavery was practised around theworld, her real claim to fame is that Charles Darwin may have broughther back from the Galapagos as an example of his budding theory ofevolution.
But detractors argue that DNA testing shows that Harriet, a gianttortoise, was born on an island the naturalist did not visit on hisgroundbreaking trip.
Unfazed, her handlers threw a big party yesterday to celebrate herbirthday. It was the big 175 yesterday — at least as far as the bestguess goes.
“We actually had quite a big celebration,” said Louise Martin, anofficial at a zoo north of Brisbane, on Australia’s Gold Coast. “We hada huge cake in the shape of a tortoise.”
The cake was for the visitors. Harriet traditionally marks birthdays with a special treat of hibiscus flowers.
She lives a calm life in a facility run by Steve Irwin, better knownas a crocodile wrangler, and her handlers say she is looking good tolive the 13 years needed to break records for tortoise longevity.
“She’s already well past her predicted life expectancy of 150,” Ms.Martin said from Australia, adding that the creature could easily liveinto her 200s.
Harriet’s year of birth was long ago pegged at 1830, based on adescription of Darwin finding creatures the size of a typicalfive-year-old.
Ed: How does she stay looking so good? Could it be the vegetarian diet? And will she travel to Kansas to speak to the State Board of Education on its new “science” standards?