The nearly 100-year-old reptile hasn’t spent a day alone in four decades and recently moved in with two new potential girlfriends of a similar species.
Since George was discovered on his native Pinta Island in this volcanic archipelago in 1971, an army of park rangers and scientists has tried everything short of online dating to make him a dad. But the females deemed great catches for him appear to have become nightmare blind dates, some of which dragged on for years.
Ecuadorean officials have searched every square foot of Pinta, scoured remote villages in mainland Ecuador and sent letters to large and obscure zoos in hopes that there is a lonesome Pinta female living an anonymous existence.
“We’re always sending out letters to see if there might be one out there, somewhere,” Lonesome George’s main caretaker, Fausto Llerena said, speaking near the tortoise’s open-air habitat on Santa Cruz Island. “But all the searches have been in vain.”
The global effort to get Lonesome George to mate is perhaps the most visible part of a decades-long quest to reverse the toll that piracy, globalization and tourism have taken on the Galapagos Islands, among the most zealously conserved wildlife sanctuaries on Earth.
Ecuadoran officials and foreign experts have spent nearly half a century weeding out foreign species such as goats and rats in an attempt to undo the damage that began when people began frequenting the islands in the 1850s.
There have been notable successes, but playing reptile matchmaker for Lonesome George has befuddled the experts who have taken an interest in the lethargic tortoise’s amenability to romance — or lust.
“The thought of him marching forward toward a destiny of extinction is kind of — it’s motivating,” said Houston Zoo veterinarian Joe Flanagan, who has served as an adviser on conservation to officials in the Galapagos.
Watch out for humans
Tens of thousands of giant tortoises roamed the Galapagos when sailors first discovered the islands in the 1850s. The slow-moving reptiles can live for more than 200 years and weigh as much as 650 pounds.
Pirates in search of Spanish treasure ships and whalers in the 16th and 17th centuries were the animals’ first known human predators. After discovering that giant tortoises could live for months without food or water, sailors and pirates began cramming them into the holds of ships to have a dependable supply of meat during long journeys.
The tortoise populations were further destroyed when shipmen introduced goats, cattle and donkeys, which competed for grazing. Dogs and pigs ate the reptiles’ eggs. By the 1960s, when Ecuador stepped up efforts to restore the archipelago’s threatened ecosystems, two of 14 subspecies of giant tortoises had become extinct.
On Espanola Island, Ecuadoran officials found 14 adult tortoises, including just two males. They took the animals to the national park’s tortoise breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, fearing the subspecies would otherwise die off.
For more info about Galapagos Islands check: www.visitecuador.com.ec
Since George was discovered on his native Pinta Island in this volcanic archipelago in 1971, an army of park rangers and scientists has tried everything short of online dating to make him a dad. But the females deemed great catches for him appear to have become nightmare blind dates, some of which dragged on for years.
Ecuadorean officials have searched every square foot of Pinta, scoured remote villages in mainland Ecuador and sent letters to large and obscure zoos in hopes that there is a lonesome Pinta female living an anonymous existence.
“We’re always sending out letters to see if there might be one out there, somewhere,” Lonesome George’s main caretaker, Fausto Llerena said, speaking near the tortoise’s open-air habitat on Santa Cruz Island. “But all the searches have been in vain.”
The global effort to get Lonesome George to mate is perhaps the most visible part of a decades-long quest to reverse the toll that piracy, globalization and tourism have taken on the Galapagos Islands, among the most zealously conserved wildlife sanctuaries on Earth.
Ecuadoran officials and foreign experts have spent nearly half a century weeding out foreign species such as goats and rats in an attempt to undo the damage that began when people began frequenting the islands in the 1850s.
There have been notable successes, but playing reptile matchmaker for Lonesome George has befuddled the experts who have taken an interest in the lethargic tortoise’s amenability to romance — or lust.
“The thought of him marching forward toward a destiny of extinction is kind of — it’s motivating,” said Houston Zoo veterinarian Joe Flanagan, who has served as an adviser on conservation to officials in the Galapagos.
Watch out for humans
Tens of thousands of giant tortoises roamed the Galapagos when sailors first discovered the islands in the 1850s. The slow-moving reptiles can live for more than 200 years and weigh as much as 650 pounds.
Pirates in search of Spanish treasure ships and whalers in the 16th and 17th centuries were the animals’ first known human predators. After discovering that giant tortoises could live for months without food or water, sailors and pirates began cramming them into the holds of ships to have a dependable supply of meat during long journeys.
The tortoise populations were further destroyed when shipmen introduced goats, cattle and donkeys, which competed for grazing. Dogs and pigs ate the reptiles’ eggs. By the 1960s, when Ecuador stepped up efforts to restore the archipelago’s threatened ecosystems, two of 14 subspecies of giant tortoises had become extinct.
On Espanola Island, Ecuadoran officials found 14 adult tortoises, including just two males. They took the animals to the national park’s tortoise breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, fearing the subspecies would otherwise die off.
For more info about Galapagos Islands check: www.visitecuador.com.ec
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