Lonesome George died in his corral at the Tortoise Breeding and Rearing Center in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos National Park. He was the sole remaining Pinta Island tortoise, and his loss marks the extinction of his species. ©Mr Tigggs, flickr
The passing of Lonesome George last month was a sobering event for the whole world. With him went the last of his kind, the giant Galapagos Pinta tortoise. To the many of you who took the time to comment in this column on this loss in our lifetimes of yet another of the planet’s species, thank you.
I thought it might be fitting, now, to spend some final moments with Lonesome George, vicariously through a visit made by biologist and natural historian Sir David Attenborough. In the video below, Attenborough describes Lonesome George, about 80 years old at the time, as the “rarest animal in the world.” Just 14 days after this film was made, Lonesome George died in his sleep.
There’s another stunning statement that Attenborough makes in this video, one that’s worthy of more moments of consideration: “Probably more than any other single creature, [Lonesome George] has focused the attention of the world on the fragility of our environment.”
Here’s to finding your true places and natural habitats,
Candy
The passing of Lonesome George last month was the most saddest dead ever in the history of the world. George was the only species of his kind alive. It is very sad, sad event.
Thank you for that moving article, Candice. It’s painful to see what human greed and overpopulation has done to our animal brethren–and it continues to happen. I’ll turn a glass over for George tonight, though there’s not enough glasses to cover the extent of extinction on the planet. What can we do? One way is to contribute to programs that encourage responsible planned parenthood (human encroachment is a common cause of extinction–there are just too many of us).