World's oldest tortoise, Jonathan, is alive and well after crypto scammer faked his death on social media

Jonathan, the 193-year-old Seychelles giant tortoise recognized as the world's oldest living land animal, is not dead. Reports of his demise that spread across social media on April Fools' Day were fabricated by a con artist who impersonated his veterinarian on X and solicited cryptocurrency donations from grieving animal lovers.

The tortoise is, as he has been for nearly two centuries, slowly roaming the grounds of the governor's residence on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Anne Dillon, head of communications on the island, confirmed as much to The Associated Press on Thursday.

"I can just assure you that he is very much alive."

The St. Helena government backed that up by sending a photo of Jonathan taken on Thursday, showing him doing what giant tortoises do best: existing, unhurried, on his own terms.

The scam behind the hoax

The false death announcement originated from an account on X falsely claiming to be Joe Hollins, a veterinarian who had worked with the reptile on the island. The post accumulated nearly 2 million views through Thursday, spreading grief and condolences across social media before anyone thought to check with the actual island, as New York Post reports.

Hollins himself doesn't even have an X account. He took to Facebook to set the record straight:

"There is a hoax — not even an April Fool — going around."

He didn't mince words about the motive, either:

"The hoaxer is asking for crypto donations. It's a con."

That detail elevates this from a tasteless prank to something more familiar. The playbook is well-worn by now: exploit an emotional moment, create urgency, and point people toward a crypto wallet before anyone has time to verify the underlying claim. The scammer bet that collective sentimentality over a beloved animal would override basic skepticism. Nearly two million views suggest it worked, at least temporarily.

A tortoise older than modern history

Jonathan was believed to be about 50 years old when he was brought to St. Helena in 1882. That means he was likely born around the early 1830s, about a decade after Napoleon Bonaparte died on that very same island in 1821. St. Helena is best known as the place the former emperor of France was exiled following his defeat by the British at Waterloo in 1815.

Jonathan has now outlasted Napoleon's legacy on the island by a comfortable margin. He has outlasted empires, world wars, and the entire history of the internet. And on Thursday, he outlasted a crypto grifter with a fake X account.

The real lesson crawling underneath

There's a pattern worth noting here. Social media has become a machine for manufacturing consensus before verification. News of the Seychelles giant tortoise's demise spread rapidly on social media on Wednesday. By Thursday, nearly two million people had engaged with the hoax. The correction, as always, traveled slower than the lie.

This particular scam was relatively low-stakes. A tortoise turned out to be fine. But the mechanics are identical to the ones that drive far more consequential misinformation: impersonate a credible source, exploit trust, harvest engagement or money before the truth catches up. The platforms that allow anonymous impersonation accounts to rack up millions of views before intervention bear some responsibility for the environment that makes this possible.

Hollins drew the right distinction. This wasn't an April Fool's joke. April Fools' jokes are meant to be revealed. This was a con, designed to extract money from people who cared about an animal and didn't stop to question the source.

Jonathan, for his part, appears unbothered. He has survived 193 years without social media and seems no worse for the experience. The rest of us might take note.