Goliath, the 517-pound Galápagos tortoise who calls Zoo Miami home, made history by becoming a first-time father at age 134 with his longtime mate, Sweet Pea. Now 136, the reptile has cemented an already historic chapter for the South Florida zoo.
The milestone was first reported in June 2025, when a hatchling emerged from an egg laid by Sweet Pea, as detailed by Vietnam.vn. That hatchling, born June 4, 2025, after a 128-day incubation, came from a clutch of eight eggs Sweet Pea laid in January 2025 — only one of which hatched. It arrived just 11 days before Goliath turned 135. Zoo Miami has described the 2025 hatchling as Goliath’s first offspring.
The first hatchling made history in its own right: it was the first Galápagos tortoise ever successfully hatched in Zoo Miami's history, per CBS News Miami. Zoo officials have described the hatchling as healthy, active, and energetic. It was moved to a separate care area for monitoring, while Goliath and Sweet Pea remain on the public exhibit.
A Record Confirmed by Guinness
Zoo Miami submitted an application to Guinness World Records seeking recognition of Goliath as the oldest animal ever to become a first-time parent, with a separate application covering Goliath and Sweet Pea together as the oldest first-time parents. At the time the zoo first announced the birth, Guinness had not yet confirmed either record. Guinness World Records has since officially confirmed Goliath as the world's oldest first-time father for any animal in recorded history, according to a report from Good Morning America.
Goliath hatched on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos on June 15, 1890, which puts his lifespan ahead of commercial sliced bread, invented in 1928, and the Wright brothers' first powered flight in 1903, per a Zoo Miami statement shared on Facebook. He was brought to the Bronx Zoo in New York in July 1929 and lived there for more than five decades before transferring to Zoo Miami in July 1981. Over the decades he was paired and mated with many female tortoises, according to official records, without producing offspring until now.
Sweet Pea, estimated to be between 85 and 100 years old, has her own deep local history. She was brought to the Crandon Park Zoo on Key Biscayne in 1960, years before that facility relocated inland and became Zoo Miami. Together, Goliath and Sweet Pea have a combined age exceeding 200 years.
Little Interest From a New Father
True to tortoise biology, Goliath showed little interest when introduced to his offspring, according to a report from Axios. Zoo Miami representatives have noted that Galápagos tortoises do not provide parental care — hatchlings become independent the moment they hatch, with no rearing required from either parent.
Ron Magill, Zoo Miami's goodwill ambassador and director of communications, has followed Goliath since the tortoise arrived at the zoo in 1981. Magill has called Goliath his “hero.”
Why Every Hatchling Counts
Goliath belongs to the Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoise subspecies, Chelonoidis niger porteri, which is classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Before this recent captive birth, only 44 Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises resided across all Association of Zoos and Aquariums accredited institutions in the United States, according to Animal Survival International — a population so small that each successful hatching carries outsized weight for the subspecies' genetic health.
The Galápagos tortoise population broadly has declined due to human exploitation, hunting, habitat loss, and introduced species, and climate change and habitat loss remain major threats to the species today. Wild populations of Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises on Santa Cruz Island face additional modern dangers from urban encroachment, including the ingestion of human waste such as plastics, glass, and discarded medical masks, according to research from the Galapagos Conservation Trust.
Zoo Miami isn't alone in notching these kinds of victories. Similar captive breeding breakthroughs occurred at the Philadelphia Zoo, where centenarian Western Santa Cruz Galápagos tortoises produced hatchlings as part of coordinated North American conservation efforts, as noted by Britannica. And while Goliath now holds the record for oldest first-time father, the title of world's oldest living land animal still belongs to Jonathan, a Seychelles giant tortoise living on St. Helena estimated to be over 190 years old, according to Newsweek.
For Zoo Miami, the hatchling's birth marks a milestone in the institution's breeding and care program — one that has produced a hatchling from an elderly pair.
