The Galapagos-Lonesome George

In 1971, environmentalists saved the last remaining species of the tortoise found on Pinta Island and appropriately named him Lonesome George. Environmentalists made desperate calls to action to find him a mate and provided him with 2 female tortoises similar, although not exact, in species. Maybe they should have used match.com instead. For 36 years he cohabitated with female tortoises but did not produce any eggs up until last year. However, the eggs did not fertilize and some believe that George may be sterile. Sadly, when he dies, so will his species. He is a reminder of the destructive effect of man and introduced goats onto the islands. On a positive note for the Galapagos, his status as the single bachelor has turned into a worldwide marketing tool for the Galapagos.

To protect the giant tortoises on the islands from the goats, the park rangers created tortoise breeding centers that I visited on Santa Cruz and Isabella Islands. They took many of the tortoises located in the craters of the islands on Isabella, each a unique species, and on other islands and transferred them to these breeding centers to help spur the growth. These centers have been a success. One species almost became extinct when rangers could only find 2 female tortoises of one species left. International calls lead to a male tortoise of the same species at a zoo in San Diego. He was shipped over and immediately started breeding with the 2 females. The rangers named him Super Diego because he has successfully produced over 800 off spring as a result. Below is his photo. Many of the tortoises are reintroduced to their islands once they are big enough to fend off the introduced species on the islands.

Although not as cool as finding giant tortoises in the natural wilderness, I did make some photo opps with the tortoises there.

On Isabella island, I met some of the volunteers who cared for the tortoises. Since I arrived at the tortoise center with the volunteers, I had a chance to watch the tortoises eat and fight over food. The smaller ones crawl all over each other to get to the food. And the babies sometime flip over on their back and wiggle their feet in the air until one of the volunteers can turn them right side up.


I also videotaped them mating. The male chases the female around until he is able to mount her. Then he does his business while grunting the whole time. The female tries to escape but because the male is so much bigger, she is unable to. You can watch some of the process in the video below.