{"id":34589,"date":"2023-12-11T11:22:37","date_gmt":"2023-12-11T10:22:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1be120db-ea09-4c88-85fa-50e524674c27"},"modified":"2023-12-11T12:35:39","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T11:35:39","slug":"how-long-do-tortoises-live","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/how-long-do-tortoises-live\/","title":{"rendered":"How long do tortoises live?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stuart Blackman takes a look at why tortoises live for so long <\/p>

By BBC Wildlife Magazine\n <\/p>

Published: Monday, 11 December 2023 at 10:22 AM<\/p>

\n\n

It\u2019s likely no coincidence that tortoises are both very slow and very long-lived. Their longevity is almost certainly linked to their slow metabolism, which results in a more gradual accumulation of harmful genetic mutations and toxic biochemical byproducts. <\/p>

How long do tortoises live?<\/h2>
Pet tortoises can live into their eighties, and giant tortoises routinely live to more than 100 years. And Jonathan, a Seychelles Giant Tortoise\u00a0that lives at Plantation House on the island of St Helena<\/a> is thought to be nearly 200 years old. He is in the Guinness World Records as the oldest-known living land animal. <\/p>
<\/div><\/figure><p>Tortoises are probably the longest lived of all vertebrates, but not of all animals. In 2006, an ocean quahog \u2013 a marine clam \u2013 was estimated to be 507 years old. Just think when that was born in approximately 1600 Charles I was on the throne.<\/p><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/reptiles\/turtle-vs-tortoise\">Turtle vs tortoise: what’s the difference?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/reptiles\/giant-tortoises-facts\">Where do giant tortoises live and why are they so big?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/><p>Main image: Jonathan of St Helena @ Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stuart Blackman takes a look at why tortoises live for so long <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":34590,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live.jpg",2560,1744,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-300x204.jpg",300,204,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-768x523.jpg",768,523,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-1024x698.jpg",800,545,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-1536x1046.jpg",1536,1046,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/12\/how-long-do-tortoises-live-2048x1395.jpg",2048,1395,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Stuart Blackman takes a look at why tortoises live for so long","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/34589"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}