Mr Turpen is a male Galapagos tortoise that lives in the

Pitcairn Islands The Pitcairn Islands (; Pitkern: '), officially the Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, is a group of four volcanic islands in the southern Pacific Ocean that form the sole British Overseas Territory in the Pacific Ocean. The four isl ...

. These animals were known as " turpins", for example

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

wrote "Met an immense Turpin; took little notice of me."

History

Mr Turpen was brought to the Pitcairn Islands on the

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

''Yankee'' in 1937. He was unloaded by longboat, at

Bounty Bay Bounty Bay is an embayment of the Pacific Ocean into Pitcairn Island. It is named after the HMS Bounty, ''Bounty'', a United Kingdom, British naval vessel whose eighteenth-century Mutiny on the Bounty, mutiny was immortalized in the novel ''Mutiny ...

. Mr Turpen is the only survivor of the five Galapagos tortoises brought to the Pitcairn Islands between 1937 and 1951. An ordinance was passed to protect Mr Turpen, by the Island Council; anyone harming him is liable to 60 days imprisonment. On 14 January 2000 the Pitcairn Islands issued a set of postage stamps celebrating Mr Turpen and the protection ordinance.

References

{{Individual turtles Individual tortoises Fauna of the Pitcairn Islands