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In brief Jonathan, a giant tortoise living in St. Helena that is nearly 200 years old, was falsely reported as dead on Wednesday.
The report was a hoax and April Fool’s Day joke that generated millions of views on social media.
A Solana meme coin was connected to the hoax, and has been promoted by the perpetrator.
An April Fool’s day joke concerning the death of a nearly 200-year-old tortoise named Jonathan caused a stir on the internet Wednesday.
The hoax, perpetrated by an individual claiming to be the veterinarian that cared for the tortoise, posted about the purported demise of the world’s oldest living land mammal on Wednesday.
After being picked up by multiple news outlets and ultimately debunked, the individual later confirmed it was an April Fool’s Day joke, mocking the publications and users who had believed it in the first place after the original post ballooned to more than 1.7 million views on the social media platform.
Jonathan remains a cherished resident of St Helena and a symbol of our island’s rich heritage. A dedicated team continues to monitor Jonathan’s health and wellbeing closely. — Governor’s Office – St Helena, Ascension & Tristan (@GO_ASHT) April 2, 2026
“1.7M views is crazy on a post about Jonathan dying today,” the account posted on Wednesday evening, after the hoax had been discovered. “Yes, he’s still alive. Did anyone send crypto?” they added, including a Solana contract address for an “Oldest Animal” meme coin that promotes Jonathan, using the ticker JONATHAN.
The Solana address was also included in the account’s social media bio and prominently displayed on the profile page of the individual.
However, while there are reports that the individual had asked for crypto donations, it’s not immediately clear if those posts were deleted, or if the contract address provided—which represents the token account of the meme coin—was mistaken as an individual’s Solana address.
At least one post from the account references “taking a donation,” but once more promotes the JONATHAN meme coin.
The Solana-based token was created in July 2025, but has languished in irrelevancy for most of its existence, having only jumped above a $40,000 market cap in the last month of trading.
Amid the fake news of the animal’s death, the token jumped briefly to a $380,000 market cap on Thursday, but has since retraced all of the gains to trade around a $50,000 market cap, according to data from DEXScreener.
That jump was not enough for any traders to score significant gains, with the two most profitable traders scoring less than $2,500 in profits. Furthermore, the most profitable trader had actually exited their JONATHAN position two days prior to the hoax announcement, missing out on a much more significant purse in the process.
I just received this proof of life from the governor of St Helena pic.twitter.com/7CR7hvNxFB — Helena Horton (@horton_official) April 2, 2026
Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise, is suspected to be at least 193 years old and resides on St. Helena, an island that is part of the British overseas territories.
The governor of the island provided a proof-of-life image of the tortoise munching on leaves to the Guardian on Thursday morning, providing reassurance to millions that had falsely mourned his passing the day prior.