# RIP Lonesome George



## Harpo (Jun 25, 2012)

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/last-kind-lonesome-george-dies-031911970.html

"Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his  kind and a conservation icon, has died of unknown causes, the Galapagos  National Park has confirmed. 	He was thought to be about 100-years-old.
  	Lonesome George was found in 1972 and had become a symbol of Ecuador's  Galapagos Islands, which attracted some 180,000 visitors last year.
  	George was the last member of a species of giant tortoise from La Pinta, one of the smallest islands in the Galapagos."


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## Vertigo (Jun 25, 2012)

Yes I heard this on the news this morning. Terribly sad. They had tried for years to get him breeding with some of his closest relatives (you know what I mean!) from one of the other islands but to no avail. And I believe he should have been good for another 100 years or more. He was supposedly in his prime.


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## Cayal (Jun 25, 2012)

Sounds like they're using him, or his memory, as a means to help turtle populations.

Which is always a positive...if theydo it.


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## Vertigo (Jun 25, 2012)

He has certainly been used as a conservation icon for a long time, and of course even if they had managed to breed him with his 'relatives', the result would not have have been a genuine Pinta Island tortoise but rather a hybrid. But still a great shame.


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## thaddeus6th (Jun 25, 2012)

Very sad to hear about this. Rather symbolic of the way that, sometimes, mankind is just moronic and ignorant about the way it acts. I'm not a big greeny or anything, but needless extinction is an absolute disgrace, as well as being rather tragic.

They reckon the Chinese river dolphin will end up going the same way, if it hasn't already.


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## Harpo (Jun 26, 2012)

This site http://www.recentlyextinct.com/ has a section called "some good news for a change", but when I clicked it just now I got this somewhat apropriate message: 
*Not Found, Error 404*

The page you are looking for no longer exists.


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## Vertigo (Jun 26, 2012)

Works now Harpo! Must have been a glitch.

Whoops no sorry. The main page exists but most of the links there give page not found. It looks like it is still under construction.


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## Gary Compton (Jun 27, 2012)

Harpo said:


> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/last-kind-lonesome-george-dies-031911970.html
> 
> "Lonesome George, the last remaining tortoise of his  kind and a conservation icon, has died of unknown causes, the Galapagos  National Park has confirmed. 	He was thought to be about 100-years-old.
> Lonesome George was found in 1972 and had become a symbol of Ecuador's  Galapagos Islands, which attracted some 180,000 visitors last year.
> George was the last member of a species of giant tortoise from La Pinta, one of the smallest islands in the Galapagos."



I blame Harebrain for making him run too fast


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## HareBrain (Jun 27, 2012)

Gary Compton said:


> I blame Harebrain for making him run too fast


 
Ah, time to pull out an interesting fact from the Interesting Fact Files.

The name Galapagos comes from the same root as the word "gallop", and this is because of the tortoises. In some subspecies of the giant tortoise, the shell rises at the front (so the creature can lift its head) and the shape of this reminded the early Spanish visitors of the shape of a horse's saddle.

I did once "meet" Lonesome George at the Charles Darwin Research Station -- the only subject of a newspaper obituary I've ever met, I think -- but I refused his offer of a race.


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## Starbeast (Jun 27, 2012)

HareBrain said:


> I did once "meet" Lonesome George at the Charles Darwin Research Station -- the only subject of a newspaper obituary I've ever met, I think -- but I refused his offer of a race.


 
Wow, you're one of the few who saw the turtle alive, cool. But alas, he's gone and thus the last of his kind is put to rest. (sigh)

It is sad when a beloved animal passes away. Especially when it's the last of a species.

I remember when Samson (a mighty silverback gorilla) passed away at his home in a Wisconsin zoo. I used to visit him once a year and smile when he would pose for pictures. He loved people giving him attention, he seemed so human the way he would stirke poses for photographs.

I was very sad when he died a few years ago.


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## Allegra (Jun 28, 2012)

How sad. At least he got his name honoured to serve as a memory for his clan. God knows how many other lonesome last one died and are dying silently in the wild.


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## Fairytale Jane (Jul 1, 2012)

One could have saved his DNA and cloned him like Dolly.


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## Vertigo (Jul 1, 2012)

Only problem with that is that I think you would have needed a live _female_ to provide the egg. I'm not sure whether using an egg from a closely related species would have worked. However I may well be wrong about that.

I would think it highly likely that they have stored some of his DNA against the possibility fo doing something like this in the future. Or even against the possibility of actually finding a female of the same species. It is still thought there may be some individuals living on one of the nearby islands.


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## Fairytale Jane (Jul 3, 2012)

An extinct species was brought back using left over DNA from fossils and utilizing similar existing relatives. 

Hopefully no one will bring back the dinosaurs


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## Allegra (Jul 4, 2012)

We still have Diego:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...-his-species/2012/07/03/gJQAyp9mKW_story.html


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## Allegra (Jul 10, 2012)

Just saw this terrible news: 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-18778013


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