Adwaita
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Adwaita (meaning "one and only" in Sanskrit) (c. 1750 – 23 March 2006) was the name of a male Aldabra Giant Tortoise in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata, India. He was the oldest living animal in Kolkata and may receive the title of oldest creature known if the claim of his age of 250 years is determined to be true by proposed carbon dating.
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[edit] History
"Historical records show he was a pet of British General Robert Clive of the East India Company and had spent several years in his sprawling estate before he was brought to the zoo about 130 years ago." [1] It is said that the Aldabra tortoise was a gift to Clive from the British seafarers who captured the tortoise from the Seychelles Islands. Reports show that Clive had four such tortoises in his villa in Latbagan at Barrackpore, in the suburbs of Kolkata. Three of the animals died, while Adwaita was transferred to the Alipore zoo in 1875 by Carl Louis Schwendler, the founder of the zoo. Adwaita had lived in his enclosure in the zoo until his death in 2006.
[edit] Description
Weighing 250 kg (550 lb), Adwaita was a bachelor. There are no records of his progeny or liaisons. He lived on a diet of wheat bran, carrot, lettuce, soaked gram, bread, grass and salt. The shell of the tortoise cracked and a wound had developed some months before his death from liver failure in March 2006.
[edit] The dispute surrounding his age
There is dispute regarding the exact age of Adwaita. While some records show his age was at least 150 years, others believe he was 250 years old. Again, some sources say the tortoise was born in 1750.[2] The shell of the tortoise is now set to undergo carbon dating to determine how old Adwaita really was when he died. If the age is determined to be 250 years, as claimed by many sources, Adwaita would be one of the oldest creatures of modern times, beating Harriet by 80 years, and Tu'i Malila, the current recordholder for the certified oldest animal, by 67 years.
