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This article is about the tortoise. For the name, see Harriet (name). Harriet is a female Name. The name is an English version of the French Henriette, a female form of Henri. For the record label, see Harriet Records. Harriet Records was an American Independent record label based out of Boston Massachusetts. For the singer, see Harriet (singer). Harriet (born Harriet Roberts 1966 Sheffield England) was a Dance pop singer
Harriet at Australia zoo
Harriet at Australia zoo

Harriet (c. 1830 – June 23, 2006) was a Galápagos tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus porteri) who had an estimated age of 175 years at the time of her death in Australia. For the game see 1830 (board game. Year 1830 ( MDCCCXXX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display Events 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan 1305 - The Flemish Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. The Galápagos tortoise (or Galápagos giant tortoise) is the largest living Tortoise, native to seven Islands of the Galápagos archipelago Harriet is the second oldest tortoise ever authenticated, the oldest being Tu'i Malila, who died in 1965 at the age of 188. Tu'i Malila (c 1777 – May 19, 1965) was the name of a Tortoise given to the royal family of Tonga Year 1965 ( MCMLXV) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar of the 1965 Gregorian calendar.

She was reportedly collected by Charles Darwin during his 1835 visit to the Galápagos Islands as part of his round-the-world survey expedition, transported to England, and then brought to her final home, Australia, by a retiring captain of the Beagle. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life See also HMS Beagle The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS ''Beagle'' For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. First Voyage On 27 September 1825 Beagle docked at Woolwich for repairs and fitted out for her new duties at a total cost of £5913 However, some doubt was cast on this story by the fact that Darwin had never visited the island that Harriet originally came from.

Contents

Detective work

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 Wickham, who was the First Lieutenant (and later Captain) of HMS Beagle under Fitzroy during the voyage of the Beagle in 1835. John Clements Wickham ( December 21 1798 &ndash January 6 1864) was naval officer and judge First Voyage On 27 September 1825 Beagle docked at Woolwich for repairs and fitted out for her new duties at a total cost of £5913 Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy ( 5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS ''Beagle''

Wickham actually brought three tortoises to Australia when he arrived after retiring from the Royal Navy in 1841; these lived at Newstead House from 1841 to 1860. Newstead House, in Newstead Park, was built by Patrick Leslie in 1846 on the Breakfast Creek bank of the Brisbane River, in the 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.

There is evidence from letters that Charles Darwin 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. Charles Robert Darwin (February 12 1809 &ndash April 19 1882 was an English naturalist, who realised and demonstrated that all Species of life This makes it at least possible that the three tortoises at the Brisbane Botanic Gardens were personally collected by Darwin.

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 Cristobal, San Salvadore, and Santa Maria; however, the subspecies on Santa Maria (G. San Cristóbal ( Chatham) is the easternmost Island in the Galápagos archipelago, and one of the oldest geologically Santiago Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first President of Ecuador, during whose n. nigra) was, in fact, already extinct 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 is one of the Galápagos Islands with an area of 986 km² and a maximum altitude of 864 metres One of the other tortoises (Tom) is still in the Queensland Museum and has been identified as a G. The Queensland Museum is a museum at South Bank in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. n. chathamensis (from San Cristobal): this subspecies went extinct in 1906 in the wild and by the time Tom died in 1942 he was the last surviving specimen of the subspecies.

Other theories about Harriet

Harriet, 2002
Harriet, 2002

An initial analysis of Harriet's DNA was unable to identify her subspecies in a cross section of 900 animals representing 26 extant and extinct populations. After reanalysis she was assigned to G. n. porteri. However, her genetic diversity and other factors in her DNA sequence data indicated she was most likely at least two generations removed from the oldest specimens of her subspecies in the dataset. The oldest G. n. porteri in the dataset were collected as adults in 1907 and, hence, this would require Harriet to be born by 1860. Year 1907 ( MCMVII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Year 1860 ( MDCCLX) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year starting

This dating rules out many alternate possibilities for Harriet as, prior to 1900, Australia was a very difficult place to get to. Year 1900 ( MCM) was an exceptional Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar 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 possible, 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" 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. Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995

Later life

Harriet was thought to be male for many years and was actually named Harry after Harry Oakman, 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. Henry Octave Cyril Vereecke ( 1906-04-04 &ndash 2002-06-16) better known as Harry Oakman, was an Australian Horticulturalist and writer (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 the Australia Zoo. Events 655 - Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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 long voyage through time.

Harriet died in her enclosure on June 23, 2006 of heart failure following a short illness. Events 1180 - First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan 1305 - The Flemish Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar.

Character

Harriet was said to be very good-natured. She loved the attention of humans and enjoyed it when people patted her on the scute. Harriet spent a majority of her day napping at her home pond. Her favourite food was hibiscus flowers. Hibiscus, or rosemallow, is a large genus of about 200&ndash220 species of Flowering plants in the family Malvaceae (the mallow family

Timeline for Harriet

(see Thomson, Irwin and Irwin (1995))

External links

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