Gramma, San Diego Zoo’s Galápagos tortoise, dies at 141

SAN DIEGO — One of the first animals brought to the San Diego Zoo has died at the age of 141 years old.

The zoo announced the death of its beloved Galápagos tortoise, Gramma, on social media, saying that she died on Nov. 20. Her exact birthdate is not known, but experts estimated her age at 141, which made her the oldest animal at the zoo.

She had “ongoing bone conditions related to advanced age” that recently progressed and the care team “made the compassionate and exceptionally difficult decision to say goodbye.”

Gramma arrived at the zoo between 1928 and 1931, part of the first group of Galápagos tortoises.

The Associated Press said she was known as “the Queen of the Zoo” during her long life.

Galápagos tortoises can live over a hundred years in the wild and almost double that in captivity. The oldest known tortoise was about 175 years old when she died in 2006.

She was a “witness to history,” the zoo said, living through 20 presidents, two world wars and two pandemics. “She gently touched countless lives over nearly a century in San Diego as an ambassador for reptile conservation worldwide,” the zoo said.