St. Helena’s ancient tortoise awaits visitors

Amestown : He is a tourist attraction worth travelling a long way to see -- Jonathan the giant tortoise is perhaps the world’s oldest land animal, living in pampered luxury on the remote British island of St. Helena.

Aged at least 185 -- though no one knows for certain -- Jonathan should prepare himself for an influx of visitors now that an airport has opened on the small island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean.

The island’s most famous resident, Jonathan slowly roams the lush gardens of the governor’s house, eating carrots, lettuce, cucumber, apples and pears prepared in the governor’s kitchen.

He appears on the island’s five-pence coin, on immigration stamps, and in old black-and-white photographs alongside Boer War prisoners in the early 20th century.