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The sole survivor of his sub-species Pinta island tortoise, a/k/a Abingdon Island tortoise, better known to us as the Galapagos Island tortoise, "Lonesome George", died in the wee hours yesterday morning. (Sunday June 24th)
George was only about 100 years old, and had a life expectancy of about 200 years. They don't know why he died, yet. It is believed that they are going to do a necropsy to try to discover the reason for his untimely death. With George's death dies the hope of trying to cross-breed to partially save his sub-species. Attempts to do so failed in the past.
Mankind's total disregard for ecologic ramifications is what killed off all of George's kind. We brought goats to the Pinta island, then later allowed said goats to go feral, and these feral goats completely consumed every bit of the vegetation necessary to sustain these great tortoises that were George's kind. No one knows how or why Lonesome George survived. He was discovered in 1971 and relocated to the Charles Darwin Research Station for his own safety, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Will we ever learn to leave Mother Earth alone? Better yet - to take good care of her? To be good stewards of our planet and all of it's creatures?
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George was only about 100 years old, and had a life expectancy of about 200 years. They don't know why he died, yet. It is believed that they are going to do a necropsy to try to discover the reason for his untimely death. With George's death dies the hope of trying to cross-breed to partially save his sub-species. Attempts to do so failed in the past.
Mankind's total disregard for ecologic ramifications is what killed off all of George's kind. We brought goats to the Pinta island, then later allowed said goats to go feral, and these feral goats completely consumed every bit of the vegetation necessary to sustain these great tortoises that were George's kind. No one knows how or why Lonesome George survived. He was discovered in 1971 and relocated to the Charles Darwin Research Station for his own safety, where he spent the remainder of his life.
Will we ever learn to leave Mother Earth alone? Better yet - to take good care of her? To be good stewards of our planet and all of it's creatures?
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