Gramma the Galapagos tortoise, oldest resident of San Diego Zoo, dies at about 141

LOS ANGELES AP After more than a century of munching on her favorite foods of romaine lettuce and cactus fruit beloved Galapagos tortoise Gramma the oldest resident of the San Diego Zoo has died Gramma was born in her native habitat and was estimated to be about years old zoo functionaries disclosed She died Nov It s not clear exactly when the tortoise arrived at the San Diego Zoo but zoo bureaucrats noted she came from the Bronx Zoo in either or as part of their first group of Galapagos tortoises As the world changed around her she delighted visitors with her sweet shy personality She lived through two World Wars and U S presidents Her care specialists affectionately called her the Queen of the Zoo She was suffering from bone conditions related to her old age that progressed lately before she was euthanized the zoo reported Plenty of visitors commented on social media about getting to first visit Gramma when they were young and being able to come back years later with their kids Cristina Park mentioned one of her earliest memories from her childhood was going to the San Diego Zoo when she was or years old and riding on the back of a tortoise That s no longer allowed but the experience inspired her to keep a small desert tortoise as a pet and learn more about tortoise conservation Just how amazing it is that they managed to live through so much Park reported And yet they re still there Galapagos tortoises can live for over years in the wild and close to double that in captivity The oldest known Galapagos tortoise was named Harriet who lived at the Australia Zoo until the age of She was collected from the Galapagos Islands in when she was just the size of a dinner plate according to the zoo This means that she hatched somewhere around and she died in Galapagos tortoises include subspecies of tortoises from the islands three of which were deemed extinct The rest are all vulnerable or critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature Concerted efforts have been made to breed these tortoises in captivity over the past several decades with more than juveniles disclosed to the wild since according to the Galapagos Conservancy Various subspecies have been brought back from the brink of extinction In April four baby Galapagos tortoises were born at the Philadelphia Zoo to first-time parents that were roughly years old a first in the zoo s history In June Zoo Miami resident and Galapagos tortoise Goliath became a first-time father at the age of