{"id":67479,"date":"2025-11-24T11:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67479\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T11:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T11:02:07","slug":"gramma-the-tortoise-at-san-diego-zoo-for-nearly-a-century-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/67479\/","title":{"rendered":"Gramma the tortoise, at San Diego Zoo for nearly a century, dies."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Gramma, a Gal\u00e1pagos tortoise whose life at the San Diego Zoo spanned more than 20 presidents, two world wars and two pandemics, has died.<\/p>\n<p>Believed to be 141 years old, the tortoise whom the zoo described on social media as \u201ca witness to history, a beloved icon, and an extraordinary ambassador for her species,\u201d was euthanized on Thursday because of deteriorating bones caused by her age.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was being expertly supported for ongoing conditions related to her age, and wildlife health and care teams made the difficult and compassionate decision to say goodbye,\u201d according to a statement from the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.<\/p>\n<p>Called \u201cthe Queen of the Zoo\u201d by her tenders, Gramma is believed to have been brought  to the San Diego facility with other Gal\u00e1pagos tortoises between 1928 and 1931, shortly after the zoo\u2019s grand opening in 1923. Although it\u2019s unclear exactly when she was born, specialists estimate that she was roughly 141 old, making her the oldest resident of the zoo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA sweet and shy tortoise, she quietly touched the lives of countless people over nearly a century in San Diego,\u201d the alliance said.<\/p>\n<p>In announcing Gramma\u2019s death, the zoo <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/25267129329616853\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">posted video<\/a> of her munching on vegetarian meals \u2014 romaine lettuce and cactus fruit were particular favorites \u2014 and meandering around her habitat and lazily plodding through a pond.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn her memory, we invite you to enjoy a generous, fruit-filled salad, a special tribute for a very special tortoise,\u201d the zoo\u2019s social media post said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gramma, a Gal\u00e1pagos tortoise whose life at the San Diego Zoo spanned more than 20 presidents, two world&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9557,40100,40098,22368,40096,40094,418,1637,40097,74,76,75,714,4412,40095,40099,9138,13473],"class_list":{"0":"post-67479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-age","9":"tag-beloved-icon","10":"tag-cactus-fruit","11":"tag-century","12":"tag-galapagos-tortoise","13":"tag-gramma","14":"tag-history","15":"tag-life","16":"tag-romaine-lettuce","17":"tag-san-diego","18":"tag-san-diego-headlines","19":"tag-san-diego-news","20":"tag-san-diego-zoo","21":"tag-social-medium","22":"tag-tortoise","23":"tag-wildlife-health","24":"tag-witness","25":"tag-zoo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}