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(Image source: BBC)
BY STEVEN SPARKMAN
The last of the Pinta Island giant tortoises has died at the age of 100. Sky News reports,
it was an icon for environmental conservation.
“Lonesome George first was discovered on the Galapagos Islands in 1972, and he became
a symbol of the islands, attracting more than 180,000 visitors every year.”
George has long been thought to be the last of his kind and was dubbed the rarest animal
in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records. His death means the extinction of
his subspecies. (Video source: Quasar Galapagos Expeditions)
Lonesome George’s plight drew attention to the problem of species extinction in the
Galapagos. A writer for Ecorazzi explains how the once-plentiful tortoises dwindled
to a single survivor.
“The Galapagos tortoises have faced survival challenges ever since humans discovered the
islands. Not only were they hunted for their meat ... but in the case of the La Pinta tortoises,
their habitat was destroyed by feral goats.”
Scientists tried to continue George’s line, putting him in an enclosure with two females
from related subspecies. But the BBC explains George was in no hurry to produce offspring.
“After 15 years of living with a female tortoise from the nearby Wolf volcano, Lonesome
George did mate. The eggs, however, turned out to be infertile.”
There are still some 20,000 tortoises on the islands of different subspecies, but none
quite like George. A writer for Care2 explains how the slow-moving giants helped shape modern
science.
“The loss of so many tortoises, as well as the death of Lonesome George and of his
subspecies with it, is all the more tragic in that it was the differences among tortoises
on the Galapagos Islands that were key to helping Charles Darwin formulate his theory
of evolution.”
Believe it or not, being a century old only made George a young adult as the tortoise
was expected to live for around another 100 years. Park officials don’t yet know a cause
of death.