No mate for 'lonesome' tortoise
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Lonesome George (photo from: The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands)
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QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Galapagos park rangers have struck out in their matchmaking efforts for Lonesome George, the archipelago's most famous giant tortoise.
Park officials said Wednesday that teams have been combing the remote Pacific islands in search of a female subspecies match, hoping to avoid the extinction of his subspecies when he dies.
"The search was meticulous, but it was only able to find the remains of 15 tortoises that had been dead for many years," the park said in a press release.
Attempts to mate him with tortoises belonging to other subspecies from neighboring Galapagos islands have been unsuccessful.
Park wardens gave 80-plus-year-old Lonesome George his name after they discovered him in 1971 and determined that he was the last of a subspecies of giant tortoises unique to Pinta Island.
The 350-pound reptile now lives at the Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island.
The giant tortoises of the Galapagos are known for their size -- they can be up to 5 feet long and weigh as much as 650 pounds.
At one time there were 15 different subspecies of tortoises in the Galapagos, but only 11 remain, the officials said.
The Galapagos, an isolated archipelago about 620 miles off Ecuador's Pacific coast, is home to unique animal species that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The islands are Ecuador's top tourist destination.
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