Record-Holding Individual Animals and How Their Records Were Verified

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists first banded Wisdom at Midway in 1956 after she laid an egg. Laysan albatrosses are known to breed from about age five. Later sightings of her red Z333 band identified the same bird across decades, giving researchers a minimum age for the oldest known wild bird.

Jonathan was already fully grown when he arrived on Saint Helena in 1882. The tortoise on the left in the archival photograph is identified as Jonathan. His size and the dated photograph helped Guinness place his birth around 1832 for its oldest tortoise record. The date is an estimate.

The first count of annual growth marks on this ocean quahog’s shell put its age at about 405 years. Researchers reexamined the shell and revised the age to 507 years. The National Museum Cardiff photograph shows the dark shell on the central stand, part of the actual specimen collected off Iceland in 2006.

Scientists in Cambodia measured Boramy at more than 13 feet from snout to tail and weighed her at 661 pounds, about 300 kilograms, in June 2022. Those measurements, taken before the team released her into the Mekong, supported Guinness’s freshwater fish record. The photograph published with the record shows the measured individual.

When Cats Protection took in Flossie, veterinary records showed she was approaching 27. That paper trail underpinned Guinness’s certification in November 2022, when she was 26 years and 316 days old. The title she received covered cats living at the time.

On January 19, 2010, Big Jake was measured without shoes at 20 hands and 2.75 inches, or 82.75 inches. Guinness recognized him as the tallest living horse at the time. Measuring without shoes makes the height comparable with other horses’ records.

Guinness recorded Lolong at 6.17 meters long after his 2011 capture in the Philippines. A truck weighbridge put his weight near 1,075 kilograms. His length is the number behind the captive-crocodile record. The photograph shows his preserved skeleton, displayed by the National Museum of the Philippines.

Guinness’s tallest-dog record lists the Doorlag family’s Great Dane at 111.8 centimeters, or 44 inches, measured at the shoulder in 2011. The measurement on all four feet defines the record. Reports of how tall he looked on his hind legs describe a different number.

Brookfield Zoo’s May 1934 ledger records Cookie’s arrival at an estimated age of at least one year. Guinness used that documented history for his longevity record. The zoo assigned him a 1933 hatch date, which explains why its birthday count differs from the conservative age Guinness reports.

Colo was the first gorilla born in a zoo. Columbus Zoo recorded her birth in December 1956 and cared for her until 2017, so her age of 60 could be traced to a known birth date. She was reported as the oldest known gorilla when she died.

Perth Zoo’s records put Puan in its care from December 1968. Her birth in Sumatra was estimated around 1956. Guinness recognized her in 2016 as the oldest verified Sumatran orangutan. The long care record documents her later years, while that early age still comes from an estimate.