The World's Most Famous Tortoise Is Stuffed...

No it doesn't mean that The Flying Tortoise
has had it's day and has gone to the great Bedford burial grounds in the sky.
It means that Lonesome George, the amazing hundred year old plus tortoise and the last of his Pinto Island species who died in June 2012 from natural causes, has now been 'stuffed' or if you prefer, preserved.
After being on show in New York's Natural History Museum George has now been flown to Quito in Ecuador where he will be on display.
There's a wonderful story of George's life, his girlfriend and his final journey here and here.
And by the way. Tortoises are Turtles that live exclusively on land...

A Cacti Diet Helps Save The Giant Galapagos Tortoise From Extinction...

Remember Lonesome George?
With his demise in 2012 his particular species would be no more but fortunately on the island of Espanola, another island in the Galapagos group, conservation efforts over the last number of years ridding the area of goats which were decimating the sometimes many hundreds of years old cactus plants, a staple diet of the tortoise, the numbers of the almost extinct giant tortoise have risen from just fifteen to over a thousand. There's more to this wonderful story
of survival here.
But there's still only the one Flying Tortoise...