I can't find the originals (flagged out of Algolia?) but this story was interesting.. slight tangent Oldest known tortoise still alive, as reports of death revealed as hoax (6 points, 7 months ago - but there's healthy discussion somewhere, think the original news was 2026-04-01) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620163
> In July 2023 there was a fight between David and Fredrik which resulted in Fredrik being turned onto his back and left to die, in an area where his plight would not have been visible from the house or the tortoise viewing area. Fortunately he was spotted in time by visiting vet Joe Hollins, who turned Fredrik the right way up with no long-lasting ill effects. This is apparently not the first time recently when a tortoise has been turned over, though in the other occasion it was David who finished the wrong way up, not after a fight but after an unsuccessful attempt to mount Emma for mating purposes…
His companions. Never thought tortoises have such a wild life.
Shouldn't it be easy to attach a sensor at the belly of the turtle that alarms staff when it happens. Sounds like an actual no-brainer use for modern technology.
How did these animals survive as a species for millions of years with this flip-over bug in their genes? Why hasn't evolution solved it, for example, by eliminating flip-prone individuals from the gene pool and giving better survival chances to those who can right themselves?
You're assuming natural selection selects for not flipping over, when in reality, it selects for the winner of the shell flipping contest as presumably without intervention, the flipped tortoise does not breed, while the winning tortoise does (or at least still has the opportunity to)
Life would be so much more magical and special if attempting to penetrate your mate could result in a slow death of dehydration and starvation, if not being torn to shreds by a passing bird of prey.
St Helena has "recently" (inside last decade) got an airport and a weekly service from Johannesburg, South Africa via Walvis Bay, Namibia.
Before that it was only accessible via an infrequent ship which took 3 days out of Cape Town, South Africa.
But given the air link it is a lot more accessible now.
Tristan is still only accessible via sea, and even if you make it there, there's no guarantee you can land. There is no port, so ship-to-land transfers are via small boat, so the whole process is very weather dependent.
Both islands though have a really interesting history, and are well worth reading about, even if you never get there.
'Jonathan' is the oldest land animal on Earth - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49998066 - Oct 2026 (164 comments)
Jonathan the 190-Year-Old Tortoise Was Photographed in 1886 and Today - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30099606 - Jan 2022 (77 comments)
His companions. Never thought tortoises have such a wild life.
https://sainthelenaisland.info/jonathan.htm
Before that it was only accessible via an infrequent ship which took 3 days out of Cape Town, South Africa.
But given the air link it is a lot more accessible now.
Tristan is still only accessible via sea, and even if you make it there, there's no guarantee you can land. There is no port, so ship-to-land transfers are via small boat, so the whole process is very weather dependent.
Both islands though have a really interesting history, and are well worth reading about, even if you never get there.
And these days you can get a flavor of local life via the local newspaper online. https://sthelenaonline.org/st-helena-independent/