Adwaita

This article is about a tortoise. For the philosophy and religious practice, see Advaita Vedanta. For the design language used in the GNOME desktop environment, see Adwaita (design language).

Adwaita (from अद्वैत, meaning "one and only" in Sanskrit) (c. 1750 – 22 March 2006), also spelled Adwaitya^[1][2] or Addwaita,^[3] was a male Aldabra giant tortoise that lived in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata, India. At the time of his death in 2006, Adwaita was believed to be amongst the longest-living animals in the world.

Adwaita

Species	Aldabra giant tortoise
Sex	Male
Hatched	c. 1750-1826 Aldabra Atoll
Died	(2006-03-22)22 March 2006 Aged 180-255 Alipore Zoological Gardens, Kolkata, India
Weight	250 kg (551 lb)

The animal is claimed to have been one of four tortoises that lived at Robert Clive's estate at Barrackpore, in the northern suburbs of Calcutta.^[4] Clive was said to have received the tortoises following his victory at the Battle of Plassey in 1757^[5], although this story is unsubstantiated.

Adwaita was transferred to the Alipore Zoo in Calcutta in 1875 or 1876 by Carl Louis Schwendler, the founder of the zoo.^[6] Adwaita lived in his enclosure in the zoo until his death on 22 March 2006 at an estimated age of 255.

Description

Weighing 250 kg (551 lb), Adwaita was a solitary animal with no records of his progeny. He lived on a diet of wheat bran, carrots, lettuce, soaked gram (chickpea), bread, grass and salt.^[5]

Age

His shell cracked in late 2005, and a wound developed in the flesh underneath the crack. The wound became infected and eventually led to his death from liver failure on 22 March 2006. Adwaita is claimed to have been 255 years old at the time of his death, although this claim is unsubstantiated.^[4] If Adwaita's claimed age were true, he would be the oldest known tortoise. Outliving Harriet by 80 years, Tu'i Malila by 67 years, and making him 63 years older than the current record holder Jonathan.