Lonesome George, his species thought to be extinct, was only discovered in 1971.He was the last remaining Giant Pinta Island Tortoise and seen as a conservation icon.
He was described by the Guinness Book Of Records as the World's Rarest Living Creature.
George died last Sunday.
Estimated to be well over one hundred years old, the cause of his death remains unclear.
There were once 600,000 giant tortoises who made their homes on the Galapagos Islands which were also home to some of the most distinctive species on this planet.
It was here that Darwin's ground-breaking theories of evolution and natural selection were inspired.
Now, with Lonesome George's death,
the world is one species poorer.
As an aside, George was a 'traditionalist tortoise' and for many years fought bureaucracy to keep the vehicle speed on the world's highways at no more than 1-2 mph.
Throughout his long life he wasn't ever in an accident involving speed and the idea of 'flying' never occurred to him.
We will miss you George...
What a fella... Kind of wish he had been named Solitary George... Lonesome sounds sad and unloved... and living more than a century requires some sort of spirit -- and luck and fate...
ReplyDeleteDo I detect a certain family resemblance there?
ReplyDeleteR.I.P.George ...
ReplyDeleteLike Harvey, I think I detect a family resemblance... And of course it takes a very special tortoise to fly... The Flying Tortoise!
ReplyDeleteI saw Lonesome George on TV last night. Handsome for 100+ years old I thought.