GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto, Ontario) 16 November 05 Fabled tortoise 'doesn't look a day over 160 - 'According to legend, Harriet was taken from the Galapagos Islands in the 1800s by Charles Darwin (Oliver Moore)
Munching hibiscus flowers and blissfully ignorant of the controversy surrounding her ancestry, the wrinkled old lady marked another birthday yesterday.
Born in the days when slavery was practised around the world, her real claim to fame is that Charles Darwin may have brought her back from the Galapagos as an example of his budding theory of evolution.
But detractors argue that DNA testing shows that Harriet, a giant tortoise, was born on an island the naturalist did not visit on his groundbreaking trip.
Unfazed, her handlers threw a big party yesterday to celebrate her birthday. It was the big 175 yesterday -- at least as far as the best guess goes.
"We actually had quite a big celebration," said Louise Martin, an official at a zoo north of Brisbane, on Australia's Gold Coast. "We had a huge cake in the shape of a tortoise."
The cake was for the visitors. Harriet traditionally marks birthdays with a special treat of hibiscus flowers.
She lives a calm life in a facility run by Steve Irwin, better known as a crocodile wrangler, and her handlers say she is looking good to live the 13 years needed to break records for tortoise longevity.
"She's already well past her predicted life expectancy of 150," Ms. Martin said from Australia, adding that the creature could easily live into her 200s.
Harriet's year of birth was long ago pegged at 1830, based on a description of Darwin finding creatures the size of a typical five-year-old.
She now weighs about twice as much as a keg of beer. She stands nearly one-metre tall, has a shell one-metre square and, with her head retracted, resembles a fair-sized rock.
"She doesn't look a day over 160," joked one person posting on cryptozoology.com.
According to the folklore, Harriet (initially known as Harry) was one of three tortoises picked up by Darwin while the naturalist was in the Galapagos Islands. They caught his eye because of the apparent variation between subspecies in different locations.
These tortoises languished in the cool climate of England before being shipped to Australia. Their records were lost in Brisbane flooding in the late 19th century.
Handlers were also surprised to find, 125 years after Harry was found, that the creature was actually a female.
The trail became murkier after the Brisbane flooding but officials at her current home are confident she is the same tortoise.
"The story's not set in stone," Ms. Martin acknowledged. "But no one can disprove it, either."
Fabled tortoise 'doesn't look a day over 160