But the giant tortoises' history shows that such losses can add up quickly to disaster. Some might think the extinction of a subspecies isn't a major loss, since the other tortoises are still around, noted San Diego Zoo ambassador Rick Schwartz. After sharing his home for more than three decades with four different females, George failed to fertilize any of their eggs.Įrica Buck, then of the Charles Darwin Foundation, told National Geographic News in 2001 that George "doesn't really show any interest" in the females. (See "Mating Turtles Fossilized in the Act.") The lone male was taken into captivity with high hopes that he would take a liking to a female tortoise of close genetic makeup and continue his lineage, at least in hybrid form. In fact, George's subspecies was thought extinct until he was found on Pinta Island in 1971. With George's passing, the islands today house just ten tortoise subspecies, most of which are very rare.
Though hunting has ceased, introduced species such as pigs and goats continue to overgraze the islands, munching through the remaining tortoises' habitats. The Galápagos Islands were originally inhabited by thousands of giant tortoises in 15 subspecies.īut in the 1800s and 1900s, sailors and pirates used the Pacific Ocean archipelago as a pit stop, hunting huge numbers of giant tortoises for food and oil. George's body is being kept in a cold chamber to prevent decomposition until a necropsy is done to determine his exact cause of death.
George's longtime caretaker, Fausto Llerana, was "unhappily surprised" to discover the tortoise "stretched out in the direction of his watering hole with no signs of life," according to a park statement.Īmong the longest lived animals, giant tortoises can survive well past a hundred, with the oldest recorded at 152. Perhaps best known for his apparent aversion to female tortoises-hence his nickname-George was the last known individual of his subspecies, Geochelone abingdoni, also called the Pinta Island tortoise or Abingdon Island tortoise. The century-old giant tortoise was found dead in his corral Sunday at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island (map), part of Galápagos National Park. If there's a giant tortoise heaven, Lonesome George is lonesome no more.
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