New Delhi: After being the star attraction at the Australia Zoo on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, Harriet the tortoise, one of the world's oldest known living creatures, has died.
Harriet, a Giant Galapagos tortoise died of a heart failure after a short sickness, according to senior veterinary doctor Dr John Hangar who said, "She had an acute heart attack and thankfully passed away quietly overnight."
The staff of the zoo, who put Harriet’s longevity down to a stress-free life, had organised a party to celebrate her 175th birthday last year.
Harriet weighed 150kg and was roughly the size of a dinner table on her 175th birthday.
Harriet is believed by some to have been studied by naturalist Charles Darwin. Darwin had taken several young Giant Galapagos tortoises back to London after his epic voyage on board HMS Beagle.
Harriet was born around 1830, a few years before Darwin visited the Galapagos archipelago in 1835, a DNA testing shows.
However, Harriet belonged to a sub-species of tortoise only found on an island that Darwin never visited.
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