An Ode To Harriet

Off she slipped into the night

This famous tortoise on her final flight

No need for her shell, nothing to fear

She looked up to the sky and said “I’m outta’ here!”

She did her time, about 176 years

She saw life from Darwin through Y2K Fears

More than just folklore, a living legend was she

There’s a lot to be said for moving slowly, I see

When she first was found, Darwin thought she was male

So Harry they named her, but with her mate she did fail

Then someone discovered her secret so deep

She was a lady, so only with males would she sleep

She spent most of her life in an Australian Zoo

Paying little attention to the crowds passing through

She wandered about in all of her glory

While poets and writers recorded her story

A healthy life she had always enjoyed

Plenty of food, not much to make her annoyed

But on June twenty-third, two thousand and six

She left from this world and moved on to the next

A sad day it was for all who admired this Queen

This Giant Land Tortoise ne’er again to be seen

But she made her mark on the hearts of us all

As she took her last bow and made her last curtain call

Sherry Gail Heim

June 24, 2006

Copyright © Sherry Gail Heim 2006

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Sydney Australia (AP) - A 176-year-old tortoise believed to be one of the world's oldest living creatures has died in an Australian zoo.

The giant tortoise, known as Harriet, died at the Queensland-based Australia Zoo owned by "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin and his wife Terri. Irwin said he considered Harriet a member of the family.

"Harriet has been a huge chunk of the Irwin family's life," Irwin said Saturday. "She is possibly one of the oldest living creatures on the planet and her passing today is not only a great loss for the world but a very sad day for my family. She was a grand old lady."

Senior veterinarian Jon Hanger told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday that Harriet died of heart failure.

Harriet was long reputed to have been one of three tortoises taken from the Galapagos Islands by Charles Darwin on his historic 1835 voyage aboard the HMS Beagle.

However, historical records, while suggestive, don't prove the claim. And some scientists have cast doubt on the story, with DNA tests confirming Harriet's age but showing she came from an island that Darwin never visited.

According to local legend, Harriet was just five years old and probably no bigger than a dinner plate when she was taken from the Galapagos to Britain.

The tortoise spent a few years in Britain before being moved to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens in Australia's tropical Queensland state in the mid-1800s. There she was mistaken for a male and nicknamed Harry, according to Australia Zoo, which later bought the 330-pound tortoise in 1987.

Harriet was believed to be the world's oldest living tortoise, and one of its oldest living creatures. Despite her longevity, however, Harriet is not the world's oldest known tortoise.

That title was awarded by the Guinness Book of World Records to Tui Malila, a Madagascar radiated tortoise that was presented to the royal family of Tonga by British explorer Captain James Cook in the 1770s. It died in 1965 at the ripe age of 188.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.