Tu'i Malila (1777 – 16 May 1966) was a

tortoise Tortoises ( ) are reptiles of the family Testudinidae of the order Testudines (Latin for "tortoise"). Like other turtles, tortoises have a shell to protect from predation and other threats. The shell in tortoises is generally hard, and like o ...

that Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

was traditionally said to have given to the royal family of

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

. She was a female radiated tortoise (''Astrochelys radiata'') from

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. Although believed to have been a male during its life, examination after the tortoise's death suggested it was female. The name means ''King Malila'' in the

Tongan language Tongan (English pronunciation: ; ') is an Austronesian language of the Polynesian branch native to the island nation of Tonga. It has around 187,000 speakers. It uses the word order verb–subject–object and uses Latin script. Related lang ...

Life

According to one story, Tu'i Malila was one of a pair of tortoises given by Captain Cook to the Tongan royal family upon his visit to Tonga in July 1777. The other tortoise reportedly died shortly after Cook's visit.Tropicalities
''Pacific Islands Monthly'', June 1966, p53 This story has been discounted on the basis that Cook made no mention of the event in his journal, although it has been suggested that the tortoise may have been the gift of a member of Cook's crew instead. According to other sources, George Tupou I obtained her from a vessel which called in Haʻapai in the first half of the 19th century. The tortoise was taken to Muʻa, where it was kept in a compound named Malila, from which it took its name. Around 1921, Sālote Tupou III moved the tortoise to the Royal Palace. Despite being kicked by a horse and run over several times, the tortoise continued its life, although it was left blind and with a badly wounded right-hand side. During

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

's Royal Tour of

in 1953, Tu'i Malila was one of the first animals shown to the

monarch A monarch () is a head of stateWebster's II New College Dictionary. "Monarch". Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest ...

on her official visit to the island nation. It appears while being fed by the royal children in the British Pathe colour newsreel of the visit. The tortoise died on 16 May 1966, aged approximately 188 years old. Tu'i Malila was listed for some time in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

as the oldest known tortoise. In 2006, a tortoise named Adwaita was claimed by an Indian zoo to be 255 years old at the age of its death, but this was never officially confirmed. In 2022, Jonathan, a tortoise living on the south Atlantic island of Saint Helena exceeded Tu'i Malila's reported age and is still alive as of 2025. A

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

dispatch of the tortoise makes an appearance as an epigraph in Philip K. Dick's '' Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?''

References

{{Named turtles 1777 animal births 1966 animal deaths Individual tortoises

Life

See also

References