One of Nova Scotia’s most unique ambassadors just turned 104 years old! Gus the tortoise lives at the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History and has lived a lot of life in his 104 years!
Gus is a Gopher Tortoise. These are pretty common in the southern United States. He was hatched in Florida at the Ross Allen Reptile Institute in Silver Springs around 1922. In 1942, the then-director of the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History bought Gus for five dollars and brought him back to Nova Scotia with him. That’s where he has lived ever since. He gets his name from John Augustus Gilhen, who looked after him at the museum in the 1950s.
Gopher tortoises do have a long life expectancy, but Gus seems to be a bit of an exception. He’s known internationally as one of the oldest, if not the oldest, of his kind.
Think about everything Gus has been alive through. He was already an adult when the Second World War began, has lived through 20 Canadian prime ministers, seen the arrival of television, computers, the internet and smartphones, and has called Nova Scotia home for more than 80 years.
Not bad for a tortoise that cost five bucks!
