Lonesome George, last-of-his-kind Galapagos tortoise, dies

QUITO, June 24 (Reuters) - Lonesome George, the last
remaining tortoise of his kind and a conservation icon, died on
Sunday of unknown causes, the Galapagos National Park said. He
was thought to be about 100 years old.

george is lonesome no more

such a sad event imo. what is the next species to leave this earth? i don't know how to embed pics so ill just go ahead and link to some.

www.google.com...,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1000&bih=617&um=1&ie=UTF -8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=9LLnT_7jFqLE2gWa263QBw

reply to post by elitegamer23


Sad. I wish there were more. I watched that humping video.. Absolutely hillarious.

I've been there and its sad to see him go.

you will be missed LG

S&F for the news of a loved one to the people that knew him.

Sad news indeed.. I know they tried multiple times to mate .. and who knows, there's the possibility of genetic cloning if we want to go down that path..

From what I read on Wikipedia however, it's possible that LG wasn't the last individual of his subspecies, there's another that might be a purebred Pinta in Prague, named "Tony".. there was a $10,000 reward offered to find a female for Tony... there's also evidence of a possible individual found in nature.. ( not directly sighted I guess, but evidence of recent activity.

Pinta ancestry tortoises around Wolf Volcano, on neighbouring Isabela island, suggests the recent presence of at least one Pinta individual near Wolf Volcano. A possible purebreed Pinta candidate, male and dubbed "Tony", lives in a Prague zoo. A reward of $10,000 was offered for the discovery of a Pinta female [7] to help save the subspecies.

The species has still be labeled as "Functionally Extinct"

reply to post by elitegamer23


This is sad. Goodby George...rest in peace.

We need more animal preserves etc. to save the animals. I know Stefanie Powers and Tippi Hedren are two rich and famous people that are doing something about it...which is good...but who else?

By the way - this is Tony .. the other possible living purebred Pinta tortoise

Originally posted by miniatus
By the way - this is Tony .. the other possible living purebred Pinta tortoise

well its good to know that george maybe isn't the last of his kind.

should we call him lonesome tony?

reply to post by elitegamer23
Dang! I dint know he was the last Galapagos tortoise. I just thought he was a cool old dude!
I've seen others like him in captivity. Disney World had an island in Orlando Florida with a few of these tortoises. I saw them there, happy slow moving cool old dudes and dudettes. They had at least 2,3 maybe more there. This was back in the late 1980s. The place is not there anymore though,so I dont know where they went.
Like I commented in the previous thread about ole' George, I have a special place in my heart for all the dry land tortoises big and small. I saw a gopher turtle digging the other day. Although I'm 52 y/o now seeing one of those guys always takes me back to my youth.
Crap! I'm starting get all teary now! goofy turtles!

RIP George!: I'll always be here to watch out for your liitle cousins in Florida

Originally posted by elitegamer23

Originally posted by miniatus
By the way - this is Tony .. the other possible living purebred Pinta tortoise

well its good to know that george maybe isn't the last of his kind.

should we call him lonesome tony?

Probably! .. but hey who knows, there still could be at least one other individual in the wild.. they found evidence of recent activity.. could just be wishful thinking, but it's at least a chance..

I'm generally on the fence when it comes to cloning animals or bringing back an extinct species, especially if it's a long dead species.. however, in the case of this one.. it has only recently gone "extinct" and a lot of that has to do with the ecosystem being damaged by introducing goats to the island .. they destroyed much of the vegetation .. I guess they've only recently got rid of the goats and the island vegetation is now starting to rebound to it's former state... so clone george!, he still has some similar relatives in the tortoise world.

Poor George

I had two tortoises..Oscar and Molly.I had em for about 10 years...they were together everyday until Oscar died.Everyday Molly would go and sit on his rock after he passed...it was like she was in mourning.Than she died a few months later..I swear it's because she missed her buddy.