Birthday Tortoise, With Age Comes Wisdom

With age comes wisdom
Happy Birthday to a very wise person!

Aldabra Tortoise
photo by Brenda Perez

This unused postcard was bought HERE in 2013.

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The Aldabra giant tortoise, from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world.

Large tortoises are among the longest-lived animals on the planet. Some individual Aldabra giant tortoises are thought to be over 200 years of age, but this is difficult to verify because they tend to outlive their human observers.

A male named Adwaita was reputedly one of four tortoises brought by British seamen from the Seychelles Islands as gifts to Robert Clive of the British East India Company in the 18th century, and came to the Calcutta Zoo in 1875. At his death in March 2006, Adwaita is reputed to have reached the longest ever measured life span of 255 years (birth year 1750). His date of birth was determined by carbon dating his shell.