It was the death hoax that had even the sharpest of minds fooled.
But the mystery behind the fake announcement of Jonathan the tortoise’s death is almost as dramatic as the life of the 193-year-old reptile.
Fans of the shelled icon were left heartbroken on Wednesday amid reports he had died on the island of St Helena after almost two centuries on this Earth.
An account on X claiming to be vet Joe Hollins, who had cared for the tortoise, said they were ‘heartbroken to share’ that Jonathan had died.
But just hours later the Friends of the British Overseas Territories revealed it was all a con, adding that Governor of the South Atlantic Nigel Phillips had ‘just checked on’ the famed tortoise and could confirm he was ‘alive and well’.
The real Mr Hollins, who is part of Jonathan’s caring team, also rushed to the tortoise’s side and found him in fine health with ‘fantastic hearing’ and a ‘good appetite’.
Thousands of animal lovers – and a smattering of news publications – had fallen for a hoax which turned out to be more sinister than a simple April Fool’s prank.
A crypto scammer faked Jonathan’s death in a bid to gather donations, reaching two million people with his post on X.
It was the death hoax that had even the sharpest of minds fooled. But the mystery behind Jonathan the tortoise’s fake death is almost as dramatic as the life of the 193-year-old reptile
A crypto scammer imitated Jonathan’s vet Joe Hollins, pictured left, and announced the tortoise’s passing on social media. Today Mr Hollins confirmed the reptile was in fact alive
He had a code for the meme coin $JONATHAN in his bio and had people used the link to invest in the crypto scheme it might have temporarily soared in price allowing current owners to sell at a high value.
Things get stranger. It later emerged the fake Hollins also allegedly scammed the person running the $JONATHAN account – a separate account to the Hollins one that posted of the tortoise’s death.
The meme coin account claimed it had donated £2,450 worth of a cryptocurrency to the fake Hollins believing he was Jonathan’s actual caretaker.
‘Shame on you,’ was the simple message they had for the con artist.
Mr Hollins told The Times the hoax might have caught people out because it ‘tugged at the heartstrings’.
The vet admitted he found it ‘disturbing’ to discover the scammer had imitated the way he talked by drawing on a string of previous interviews he had given, as well as the book he had published.
But he said that people could have realised the hoax account was not him by the way it spelt the world ‘honor’ – Mr Hollins is British.
Either way, Jonathan survived yet another night on this mortal coil and lives to munch another leaf.
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.
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, pictured
He 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
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
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.
