Harriet
Encyclopedia
Galápagos tortoise
The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise is the largest living species of tortoise, reaching weights of over and lengths of over . With life spans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates...
(Geochelone nigra porteri) who had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death in Australia. Harriet is the third oldest tortoise ever authenticated, behind Tu'i Malila
Tu'i Malila
right|thumb|200px||A photo of the tortoise's preserved body, 2003.Tu'i Malila was a tortoise given to the royal family of Tonga by Captain James Cook. It was a radiated tortoise from Madagascar and is the second longest-lived tortoise whose age has been verified.The name means King Malila in the...
, who died in 1965 at the age of 188, and Adwaita
Adwaita
Adwaita was the name of a male Aldabra giant tortoise in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata, India...
, who died in 2006 at the estimated age of 255.
She was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
during his 1835 visit to the Galápagos Islands
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...
as part of his round-the-world survey expedition
Second voyage of HMS Beagle
The second voyage of HMS Beagle, from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836, was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide...
, transported to England, and then brought to her final home, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, by a retiring captain of the Beagle
HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
. However, some doubt was cast on this story by the fact that Darwin had never visited the island that Harriet originally came from.
HMS Beagle
In August 1994, a historian from Mareeba published a letter in the local newspaper about two tortoises he remembered at the Botanic Gardens in 1922 and that the keepers of the time were saying that the tortoises had arrived at the Gardens in 1860 as a donation from John Clements WickhamJohn Clements Wickham
John Clements Wickham was a naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was a Lieutenant on HMS Beagle during her second survey mission from 1831 to 1836, which took the young naturalist Charles Darwin on what became the subject of his book, The Voyage of the Beagle...
, who was the First Lieutenant (and later Captain) of HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...
under Fitzroy
Robert FitzRoy
Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, and as a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate weather forecasting a reality...
during the voyage of the Beagle in 1835.
Wickham actually brought three tortoises to Australia when he arrived after retiring from the Royal Navy in 1841; these lived at Newstead House
Newstead House, Brisbane
Newstead House is Brisbane’s oldest surviving residence and is located on the Breakfast Creek bank of the Brisbane River,in the northern Brisbane suburb of Newstead, in Queensland, Australia...
from 1841 to 1860. Records show that the tortoises were donated to the Botanic Gardens in 1860 when Wickham retired as Government Resident of Moreton Bay (now Brisbane) and left Australia for Paris.
Some researchers claim that Wickham was in Australia in 1841 and did not visit England that year to pick up the tortoises. This differs from information published by Dr. C.G. Drury Clarke and others, who list him as being in England in 1841. Furthermore, the British Hydrographic Department published maps of Wickham's surveys in 1841, indicating that he was in London that year. In addition, John Lort Stokes, who assumed command of the Beagle after Wickham, explicitly states in his book Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 that Wickham departed to England after resigning his position as Captain.
There is evidence from letters that Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
was aware that Wickham had these tortoises, as he sent a letter to Huxley in 1860 informing him that he should speak with Wickham in Paris about the last of the tortoises from the 1835 expedition because he had them. This makes it at least possible that the three tortoises at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens were personally collected by Darwin.
It is thought that as many as 40 tortoises were stowed aboard the Beagle. Some were turned into meals, others were kept as souvenirs by crew members, a few as scientific specimens. Once the Beagle returned to England, the care of these large creatures became burdensome, so they were adopted by a local museum. There is no evidence that Darwin kept any of them as a pet in his home.
Harriet's subspecies
That the subspecies Harriet represents was not from one of the islands visited by Darwin is not actually problematic. Darwin definitely collected tortoises on San CristobalSan Cristóbal Island
San Cristóbal is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, and one of the oldest geologically.Its Spanish name "San Cristóbal" comes from the patron saint of seafarers, St. Christopher...
, San Salvadore
Santiago Island (Galápagos)
Santiago Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, named after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Sea , or as James Island. The island, which consists of two overlapping volcanoes, has an area of 585 km² and a maximum altitude of...
, and Santa Maria
Floreana Island
Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago, having previously been called Charles Island...
; however, the subspecies on Santa Maria (G. n. nigra) was, in fact, already nearing extinction when Darwin visited the islands, having been killed and eaten by prisoners on the prison colony there. Yet Darwin still collected tortoises on Santa Maria: the tortoises he found had been retrieved by the prisoners from other islands for food and Darwin collected some of these before they reached the stewpot. Hence they were a mixture of subspecies from a number of islands. Harriet, as a G. n. porteri, is from Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Island (Galápagos)
Santa Cruz Island is one of the Galápagos Islands with an area of and a maximum altitude of .Situated in the center of the archipelago, Santa Cruz is the second largest island after Isabela. Its capital is Puerto Ayora, the most populated urban centre in the islands. On Santa Cruz there are some...
. One of the other tortoises (Tom) is still in the Queensland Museum
Queensland Museum
The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland. The museum currently operates four separate campuses; at South Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Townsville.The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.-History:...
and has been identified as a G. n. chathamensis (from San Cristobal).
Other theories about Harriet
This dating rules out many alternate possibilities for Harriet as, prior to 1900, Australia was a very difficult place to get to. There were only two imports of Galápagos tortoises prior to 1900, and four of the five animals involved have been accounted for and are still represented by museum material. The suggestion in some quarters that Harriet was collected by whalers and brought to Australia is not likely, as Australia had its own whaling industry and whaling ships from South America did not visit Australia.
The tortoises collected by Darwin were all recorded in Fitzroy's journals of the voyage, including their measurements. As they averaged 11 inches (27.9 cm) in length, and this represented an approximate age of 5 years for the subspecies, Harriet's year of birth was estimated by Scott Thomson to 1830, with an error of 2 years either way, in the 1995 paper describing the events of Harriet's life and the results of the research.
Some also believe that Harriet was left with the Yabsley family of Coraki who were also on the Beagle.
Later life
Harriet was thought to be male for many years and was actually named Harry after Harry OakmanHarry Oakman
Henry Octave Cyril Vereecke , better known as Harry Oakman, was an Australian horticulturalist and writer. An immigrant from Belgium, Oakman wrote numerous illustrated books on gardening and, as a public landscaper, enjoyed enormous influence over the design of open spaces in Brisbane, Canberra,...
, the creator of the zoo at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, but this was corrected in the 1960s by a visiting director of Hawaii's Honolulu Zoo. (As it happens, Tom, the specimen in the Queensland Museum, was also a female.)
On November 15, 2005, her much publicized 175th birthday was celebrated at Australia Zoo
Australia Zoo
Australia Zoo is a zoo located in the Australian state of Queensland on the Sunshine Coast near Beerwah/Glass House Mountains. It is a member of the Zoo and Aquarium Association , and is owned by Terri Irwin, the widow of Steve Irwin, whose wildlife documentary series The Crocodile Hunter made the...
. This event was attended by Scott Thomson (the researcher on Harriet's history), three generations of the Fleay family, Robin Stewart (author of Darwin's Tortoise), and many hundreds of others who knew this tortoise during the latter part of her life.
Harriet died in her enclosure on June 23, 2006, of heart failure following a short illness.
Character
Harriet was said to be very good-natured. She loved the attention of humans and enjoyed it when people patted her on the scuteScute
A scute or scutum is a bony external plate or scale, as on the shell of a turtle, the skin of crocodilians, the feet of some birds or the anterior portion of the mesonotum in insects.-Properties:...
. Harriet spent a majority of her day napping at her home pond. Her favourite food was hibiscus
Hibiscus
Hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is quite large, containing several hundred species that are native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world...
flowers.
Timeline for Harriet
(see Thomson, Irwin and Irwin (1995))- ca. 1828–18321830s- Wars :* The First Opium War between the United Kingdom and the Qing Empire of China started in 1839. It would end three years later with the signing of the Treaty of Nanking on 29 August 1842.- Internal conflicts :* French Revolution of 1830...
: Harriet hatches, probably on Santa CruzSanta Cruz Island (Galápagos)Santa Cruz Island is one of the Galápagos Islands with an area of and a maximum altitude of .Situated in the center of the archipelago, Santa Cruz is the second largest island after Isabela. Its capital is Puerto Ayora, the most populated urban centre in the islands. On Santa Cruz there are some...
. - 1835: Harriet is probably collected by Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and taken to England. - 1841: Wickham retires from the Royal Navy, moves to Australia and brings three tortoises with him. Lives at Newstead House.
- 1859: First publication of Darwin’s Origin of SpeciesThe Origin of SpeciesCharles Darwin's On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the...
. - ca. 18601860sThe 1860s were an extremely turbulent decade with numerous cultural, social, and political upheavals in Europe and America. Revolutions were prevalent in Germany and the Ottoman Empire...
: Probable time when the three tortoises are placed in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens as Wickham soon left Australia for France. - ca. 18701870sThe 1870s continued the trends of the previous decade, as new empires, imperialism and militarism rose in Europe and Asia. America was recovering from the Civil War. Germany declared independence in 1871 and began its Second Reich. Labor unions and strikes occurred worldwide in the later part of...
: The earliest first-hand account of Harriet. - 1882: Charles Darwin dies.
- 1942: Tom – one of the original three tortoises – dies, and is placed in the Queensland Museum.
- 1952: Harriet moves to Fleay’s Fauna Sanctuary.
- 1987: Harriet moves to the Queensland Reptile Park (Australia Zoo).
- 1995: Harriet's remarkable history and the results of the research are presented.
- 2005: Harriet's 175th birthday is attended by many people who had a long association with her.
- 2006: On June 23, Harriet dies of heart failure at Australia Zoo.