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| Lonesome George |
Joseph de Ca'th Lon has returned to Pinta Island, in the Galapagos Islands hometown of one of the oldest tortoises we had known: Lonesome George. Joseph met Lonesome George some years ago when he was visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station and today, he wants to remember his experience with this incredible animal.
Lonesome George (1910–June 24, 2012) was a male Pinta Island tortoise, Chelonoidis abingdonii, and the last known individual of the species. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world. George serves as a potent symbol for conservation efforts in the Galápagos Islands and throughout the world.
More information: Galapagos Conservancy
George was first seen on the island of Pinta on 1 November 1971 by Hungarian malacologist József Vágvölgyi. The island's vegetation had been devastated by introduced feral goats, and the indigenous Chelonoidis abingdonii population had been reduced to a single individual. It is thought that he was named after a character played by American actor George Gobel.
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| Lonesome George and Fausto Llerena |
Relocated for his safety to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island, where he spent his life under the care of Fausto Llerena, whom the tortoise breeding center is named after. It was hoped that more Pinta tortoises would be found. Unfortunately, no other Pinta tortoises were found. The Pinta tortoise was pronounced functionally extinct as George was in captivity.
Until January 2011, George was penned with two females of the species Chelonoidis becki, from the Wolf Volcano region of Isabela Island, in the hope his genotype would be retained in any resulting progeny. This species was then thought to be genetically closest to George's; however, any potential offspring would have been intergrades, not purebreds of the Pinta species.
More information: Charles Darwin Foundation
In July 2008, George mated with one of his female companions. Thirteen eggs were collected and placed in incubators. On 11 November 2008, the Charles Darwin Foundation reported 80% of the eggs showed weight loss characteristic of being inviable. By December 2008, the remaining eggs had failed to hatch and x-rays showed they were inviable.
On 23 July 2009, exactly one year after announcing George had mated, the Galápagos National Park announced one of George's female companions had laid a second clutch of five eggs. The park authority expressed its hope for the second clutch of eggs, which it said were in perfect condition. The eggs were moved to an incubator, but on 16 December, it was announced the incubation period had ended and the eggs were inviable, as was a third batch of six eggs laid by the other female.
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| Lonesome George and Joseph de Ca'th Lon |
On 24 June 2012, at 8:00 am local time, Edwin Naula, Director of the Galápagos National Park, announced that Lonesome George had been found dead by his caretaker of 40 years, Fausto Llerena. Naula suspects that the cause of death was heart failure consistent with the end of the natural life cycle of a tortoise. A necropsy confirmed that he died of old age. The body of Lonesome George was frozen and shipped to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to be preserved by taxidermists. The preservation work was carried out by the museum's taxidermist George Dante, with input from scientists.
More information: American Museum of Natural History
In November 2012, in the journal Biological Conservation, researchers reported identifying 17 tortoises that are partially descended from the same subspecies as Lonesome George, leading them to speculate that related purebred individuals of that subspecies may still be alive.
In December 2015 it was reported that the discovery of another species Chelonoidis donfaustoi by Yale researchers had a 90% DNA match to that of the Pinta tortoise and that scientists believe this could possibly be used to resurrect the species.
More information: The Guardian
My mind seems to have become a kind of machine
for grinding general laws out of large collections of facts.
Charles Darwin
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