SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Jonathan the giant tortoise - he lives. He is the oldest known land animal, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Hatched in the 1830s, he has outlived seven British monarchs, 36 U.S. presidents, roaming the grounds of the governor's mansion on the island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic. On Wednesday this week, an account on X claiming to belong to Jonathan's longtime vet, Joe Hollins, said that Jonathan had passed away peacefully. The death was widely reported, but the real Joe Hollins now joins us from Saint Helena, along with the governor himself, His Excellency Nigel Phillips. And you're here to tell us Jonathan is 194 and alive and well.
NIGEL PHILLIPS: I can confirm that. I was looking at him today.
JOE HOLLINS: And not too far from 200 years.
SIMON: Oh, my word. Well, Dr. Hollins, how did you learn about Jonathan's supposed demise?
HOLLINS: I got it fairly early on, actually, and of course, I was horrified because it purported to be in my name. And at first I thought it was an April fool, but then, of course, because it involved requests for cryptocurrency, it was a con, so it became rather more important.
SIMON: Governor Phillips, did you go check on Jonathan, just to be sure?
PHILLIPS: I most certainly did. I was made aware by a reporter from The Guardian. My wife very kindly went out into the paddock in the pitch dark to look for him, and he was indeed under a bush, where he normally is, and was perfectly happy. But, yes, we definitely checked.
SIMON: How's he doing?
HOLLINS: I mean, we both love him, don't we, Governor? It's - he's an extraordinary zoological specimen, and he's doing really very well for his age. He is not only the oldest living land animal, but frankly, in modern science and human history, the oldest known living animal, so we don't even know how long he'll live. He eats very well. We feed him by hand once a week. We've got a rota of four people, including the governor's wife, Emma, who is very proactive in their care. And frankly, we have to stop feeding him because I always worry that he'll burst. His appetite is phenomenal.
PHILLIPS: (Laughter).
SIMON: Well, God bless him. He still has zest for life, it sounds like.
HOLLINS: Oh, he definitely does. He's a very active animal, actually, and moves surprisingly quickly for somebody so large.
SIMON: I must tell you, when I heard the story I relate because I'm elderly - not quite as elderly as Jonathan - and I also had my account on X hacked by a crypto scam.
PHILLIPS: (Laughter).
HOLLINS: It's a sign of the times, I'm afraid - isn't it? - that these things happen. And I believe, according to The Guardian article, it was tracked back to Brazil, in fact. And you would appreciate this as an American that one of the little giveaways was the fact that they had spelled honor H-O-N-O-R, even though the rest of the...
SIMON: Oh, my God, what a rank misspelling that is.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLLINS: Of course, we would put a U in it. I would never spell it that way.
SIMON: You know, that's what 1776 was all about.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLLINS: Absolutely.
SIMON: Governor, is Jonathan what amounts to an island favorite, even, dare I say, a tourist attraction?
PHILLIPS: Oh, very much so. He's really something of an institution. He's been part of Saint Helena's history for such a long time that, you know, people have wedding photographs with him in the olden days.
SIMON: Oh.
PHILLIPS: We've tried to stop this now, but, you know, you - little kids would get on him and all the rest of it. And he's just become so much part of the island. We use him extensively in our publicity for tourism. And, you know, let me please put a plug here. If you'd like to come and see Jonathan in the flesh, please do come to Saint Helena. It's a beautiful, beautiful island and there's so much more to see, but Jonathan is very much an attraction. But, yeah, he never fails to impress. Even when he's asleep, just the sheer size of the fella gets people interested.
SIMON: That's the real Dr. Joe Hollins, who is Jonathan's longtime vet, and His Excellency Nigel Phillips, the governor of Saint Helena. Thank you both very much for being with us.
HOLLINS: Thank you very much, Scott.
PHILLIPS: Yeah, thank you for having us. It's been a real pleasure to talk about Jonathan. And to confirm once again, he is alive and well (laughter).
SIMON: Oh, thank you.
HOLLINS: He's thriving. May he make his 200th.
PHILLIPS: Indeed.
HOLLINS: (Laughter).
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