![]() ![]() They said his body would probably be embalmed to conserve him for future generations. ![]() Galapagos National Park officials said that with George's death, the Pinta tortoise subspecies has become extinct. He became a symbol of the Galapagos Islands, which attract some 180,000 visitors a year. He also shared his corral with female tortoises from Espanola island, which are genetically closer to him than those from Wolf volcano, but Lonesome George failed to mate with them. Lonesome George became part of the Galapagos National Park breeding programme.Īfter 15 years of living with a female tortoise from the nearby Wolf volcano, Lonesome George did mate, but the eggs were infertile. Lonesome George was first seen by a Hungarian scientist on the Galapagos island of Pinta in 1972.Įnvironmentalists had believed his subspecies (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni) had become extinct. While his exact age was not known, Lonesome George was estimated to be about 100, which made him a young adult as the subspecies can live up to an age of 200. Watch: What happened when Darwin arrived on the Galapagos Islands in 1835?.Kleinmann's tortoise, also known as the Egyptian tortoise, is the smallest of the Mediterranean species.They get their name from the striking yellow and dark brown star pattern on their shells. Burmese starred tortoises are also listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.They are only found in southern scrublands in Madagascar. Radiated tortoises are "one of the world's most beautiful species", according to David Attenborough.Poachers known as "the tortoise mafia" and locals who eat tortoise meat threaten Madagascar's rare tortoises, which include the Ploughshare, Spider, Radiated and Flat-tailed species.Vulnerable Galapagos Giant tortoises mate in a way which means that the female is not crushed by the male, who can weigh about 400kg.There are only a few hundred left in the wild and they are critically endangered. Ploughshare tortoises have their shells defaced to make them worthless on the black market.
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