Adwaita (meaning "one and only" in Sanskrit) (c. 1750 – 23 March 2006) was the name of a male Aldabra Giant Tortoise in the Alipore Zoological Gardens of Kolkata, India. He was the oldest living animal in Kolkata and may receive the title of oldest creature known if the claim of his age of 250 years is determined to be true by proposed carbon dating (though carbon 14 has a half life of 5730±40 years, so would be an unsuitable method for accurate dating on a scale of only hundreds of years, results would need corroberation by another method or methods). The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Events March 2 - Small earthquake in London, England April 4 - Small earthquake in Warrington, England August 23 - Small earthquake in Spalding, England September 30 - Small earthquake in Northampton, England November 16 – Westminster Bridge officially opened Jonas Hanway is the first Englishman to use an umbrella James Gray reveals her sex... March 23 is the 82nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (83rd in leap years). ... For the Manfred Mann album, see 2006 (album). ... Binomial name Geochelone gigantea Schweigger, 1812 The Aldabra Giant Tortoise (Geochelone gigantea), from the islands of the Aldabra Atoll in the Seychelles, is one of the largest tortoises in the world. ... The Alipore Zoological Gardens (also informally called the Alipore Zoo, Calcutta Zoo or Kolkata Zoo) is Indias oldest formally stated zoological park (as opposed to royal and British menageries) and a big tourist attraction in Kolkata, West Bengal. ...   (IPA: [] Bengali: কলকাতা) (formerly  ) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. ... This is a list of long-living organisms. ... Radiocarbon dating is the use of the naturally occurring isotope of carbon-14 in radiometric dating to determine the age of organic materials, up to ca. ...

History

"Historical records show he was a pet of British General Robert Clive of the East India Company and had spent several years in his sprawling estate before he was brought to the zoo about 130 years ago." ^[1] It is said that the Aldabra tortoise was a gift to Clive from the British seafarers who captured the tortoise from the Seychelles Islands. Reports show that Clive had four such tortoises in his villa in Latbagan at Barrackpore, in the suburbs of Kolkata. Three of the animals died, while Adwaita was transferred to the Alipore zoo in 1875 by Carl Louis Schwendler, the founder of the zoo. Adwaita had lived in his enclosure in the zoo until his death in 2006. Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, meeting with Mir Jafar after Plassey, by Francis Hayman Major-General Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive of Plassey, KB (29 September 1725 - 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the soldier of fortune and commander who established the military supremacy of the... The British East India Company, sometimes referred to as John Company, was the first joint-stock company (the Dutch East India Company was the first to issue public stock). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Carl Louis Schwendler (1838 - 1882) was a German electrician and one of the first proponents of the Tungsten based incandescent light bulb. ...

Description

Weighing 250 kg (550 lb), Adwaita was a bachelor. There are no records of his progeny or liaisons. He lived on a diet of wheat bran, carrot, lettuce, soaked gram, bread, grass and salt. The shell of the tortoise cracked and a wound had developed some months before his death from liver failure in March 2006. The U.S. National Prototype Kilogram, which currently serves as the primary standard for measuring mass in the U.S. It was assigned to the United States in 1889 and is periodically recertified and traceable to the primary international standard, The Kilogram, held at the Bureau International des Poids et... This article should be translated from material at fr:Liaison. ... The liver is an organ present in vertebrates and some other animals. ...

The dispute surrounding his age

There is dispute regarding the exact age of Adwaita. While some records show his age was at least 150 years, others believe he was 250 years old. Again, some sources say the tortoise was born in 1750.^[2] The shell of the tortoise is now set to undergo carbon dating to determine how old Adwaita really was when he died. If the age is determined to be 250 years, as claimed by many sources, Adwaita would be one of the oldest creatures of modern times, beating Harriet by 80 years, and Tu'i Malila, the current recordholder for the certified oldest animal, by 67 years. Radiocarbon dating is the use of the naturally occurring isotope of carbon-14 in radiometric dating to determine the age of organic materials, up to ca. ... Harriet, 2002 Harriet is a Galápagos tortoise believed to be, at an estimated 175 years, the oldest known living animal in the world. ... A photo of the tortoises preserved body, 2003. ...

Notes

1. ^ Jogesh Barman, Forestry minister, West Bengal Government
2. ^ UPI report

External links

• The Pioneer article, 6 May, 2005
• BBC report on the death of the tortoise