i newspaper, January 23, 2024
(53 words) The first thing you want to know about the oldest living animal in the world is its age. This story makes you work it out for yourself – the reader should not have to do mental arithmetic. I would have put the tortoise at the beginning rather than the end, and I would also say what species it is. If it is ‘thought’ to have been hatched in 1832 (and full marks for using the correct term rather than the usual ‘born’) , can we be sure it is the record-holder?
This is how I would have done it:
Jonathan the ancient
tortoise takes a bow
THE Duke of Edinburgh is due to meet a 191-year-old tortoise which is believed to be the oldest living land animal in the world when he visits the remote British Overseas Territory of St Helena in the South Atlantic this week. Jonathan the Seychelles tortoise is thought to have hatched in 1832. (52 words)