MIAMI A giant tortoise who waited more than a century for fatherhood is meeting a brand new audience this week. A viral post reintroducing Goliath, the estimated 135-year-old Galápagos tortoise at Zoo Miami, has pulled his improbable family story back into feeds, long after the zoo first announced it.
The post has drawn more than 2,000 likes since it went up. It recaps a milestone Zoo Miami confirmed in June 2025: after 128 days of incubation, a single egg from a clutch of eight laid on January 27 hatched on June 4, making Goliath a first-time father at an age most species never reach.
The hatchling was also the first Galápagos tortoise ever born at the zoo, NBC News reported at the time. Goliath weighs 517 pounds. His official record says he hatched on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos sometime between 1885 and 1890, moved to the Bronx Zoo in 1929 and arrived in Miami in 1981.
The mother, Sweet Pea, is estimated to be between 85 and 100 years old and has lived in South Florida since 1960. Together the new parents top 200 combined years, which is precisely why the zoo applied for two Guinness World Records titles, CBS News Miami reported: the oldest first-time father in history and, for the pair, the oldest first-time parents.
“Goliath is my hero, and I am sure he will soon be an inspiration to many others!” zoo spokesman Ron Magill said in a statement when the birth was announced. NPR carried the remarks. “He is living proof that where there is a will, there is a way and to never give up!”
Do not expect a family portrait, though. In the wild, Galápagos tortoise hatchlings are on their own from the moment they emerge, and parents play no role in raising them, the zoo explained. The baby was moved from its incubator to a separate enclosure, where keepers described it as active and full of energy.
Galápagos tortoises are an endangered species. Their numbers were devastated before the 20th century by human exploitation and invasive predators that raided nests, and the Associated Press, in its coverage of the birth, listed climate change and habitat loss among the modern threats.
Record-setting animal elders have a way of stopping the scroll. Flossie the cat was hailed as the world’s oldest living cat when she turned 30, and a terminally ill 6-year-old’s farewell visit with the viral hippo Moo Deng became one of the most-read animal stories of the year.
The zoo marked Goliath’s birthday that same June, and Magill said the stars had finally aligned to make the birthday a Father’s Day. Both parents remain on display at their habitat at Zoo Miami. A year and a half on, the internet has finally caught up with the story.
