Lonesome George

{Thursday}

We just got back from our first encounter with Lonesome George. There were originally 14 species of Giant Tortoise in the Galapagos. The pirates, whalers, and settlers who firstcame to the Islands eradicated 3 species and decimated the other populations by 90%. It is easy to see why. The Giant Tortoise live a year without food or water so they made the perfect meat stock on old sailing ships.

In 1972 scientists found Lonesome George. He is a Pinta species. There have been no other discoveries of any other of his species since then. George is alone, the last of his kind. He is estimated to be 60-90 years old. Most of these Giant Tortoise live to be about 100 years old. When George dies, the species dies with him.

With these facts in mind it was a special experience to not only see the famous Tortoises, but also Lonesome George himself.

He is penned with two females of a different species, but growing up alone he did not learn social or mating behavior so attempts at mating have been unsuccessful. Cloning is an outside possibility, but has not been tried yet.

We also saw land iguanas that were very brightly colored and quite beautiful, but there are actually places where you can walk among and touch the Giant Tortoises, which was very cool to say the least.