A giant Galapagos tortoise has died at the age of 125 after suffering multiple health complications due to his old age, zoo officials said.

The sweet potato-loving tortoise, reportedly the zoo’s oldest resident, died at the Nehru Zoological Park, in the city of Hyderabad, in India’s state of Telangana on Saturday, 16th March.

Zoo officials first became worried when they noticed that the male tortoise, named Chanakya, had stopped eating.

On-site veterinarians provided constant care and keepers made sure they gave Chanakya his favourite veggies but he reportedly would not eat for 10 days.

On Saturday morning, staff entered the enclosure to check on Chanakya and found that he had passed away in his sleep.

The Nehru Zoological Park said in a statement on Saturday: “Galapagos giant tortoise, male, aged about 125 years died today due to old age complications.

“He was off feed for the past 10 days.”

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Along with another 95-year-old tortoise, Chanakya was regarded as the zoo’s star attraction.

Chanakya was moved to Nehru Zoological Park from the Public Gardens back in 1963, according to local media reports.

An initial postmortem has reportedly revealed the cause of death was multiple organ failure.

Samples have been sent to the Veterans Bio-Medical Research Institute and Veterinary College, Rajendranagar for further investigation.

The Curator and the Zoo staff expressed their deep condolences on the tortoise’s death.