LondonAP —
Reports on April Fools’ Day of the death of the world’s oldest living land animal — a 193-year-old tortoise called Jonathan — were greatly exaggerated.
Jonathan is still kicking — albeit slowly — on the island of St. Helena.
“It was a hoax,” Anne Dillon, head of communications on the island, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “I can just assure you that he is very much alive.”
News of the Seychelles giant tortoise’s demise spread rapidly on social media on Wednesday.
An account on X, falsely claiming to be by Joe Hollins, a veterinarian who had worked with the reptile on the island in the south Atlantic…