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Galapagos Giant Tortoises

So if there are surviving members of the species they were the ones intended for some sailor's cooking pot? How ironic.
Hope they have survived though. Just a shame the discovery has come too late for poor old Lonesome George to find a companion. :(
 
Definite descendants discovered.

Conservationists working around the largest volcano on the Galapagos Islands say they have found 30 giant tortoises partially descended from two extinct species, including that of the famed Lonesome George.

The Galapagos National Park and Galapagos Conservancy said Friday that a young female has a direct line of descent from the Chelonoidis abingdonii species of Pinta Island. The last of those tortoises was Lonesome George, who died in June 2012 and was believed to be more than 100 years old.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...rtoise-species-found-in-galapagos-979298.html
 
Definite descendants discovered.

Conservationists working around the largest volcano on the Galapagos Islands say they have found 30 giant tortoises partially descended from two extinct species, including that of the famed Lonesome George.

The Galapagos National Park and Galapagos Conservancy said Friday that a young female has a direct line of descent from the Chelonoidis abingdonii species of Pinta Island. The last of those tortoises was Lonesome George, who died in June 2012 and was believed to be more than 100 years old.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...rtoise-species-found-in-galapagos-979298.html

Brilliant news.
 
The death of Galápagos tortoise Lonesome George this summer was thought to mark the extinction of a subspecies, but a new study hints that the reptile may not have been the last of his kind after all.
Researchers from Yale University recently trekked to the northern tip of Isabella Island, the largest of the Galápagos, and collected DNA from more than 1,600 giant tortoises. The genetic samples showed that 17 of these tortoises were hybrids that had a parent like Lonesome George from the subspecies Chelonoidis abingdoni.
http://www.livescience.com/24806-galapa ... eorge.html

The gees of Lonesome George live on.

In other Galapagos giant tortoise news ...

Diego - the century-old patriarch in a project to save his own Galapagos giant tortoise species (Chelonoidis hoodensis), has been returned to the islands after more than a half-century of producing new descendants.
Diego, The Magnificent Hero of The Galapagos, Has Finally Returned Home

Diego the giant Galapagos tortoise whose tireless efforts are credited with almost single-handedly saving his once-threatened species, was put out to pasture Monday on his native island after decades of breeding in captivity, Ecuador's environment minister said. ...

"We are closing an important chapter" in the management of the park, said the minister Paulo Proano on Twitter, adding that 25 tortoises including the prolific Diego, "are going back home after decades of reproducing in captivity and saving their species from extinction." ...

Before being taken back by boat to Espanola, the 100-year-old Diego and the other tortoises had to undergo a quarantine period to avoid them carrying seeds from plants that are not native to the island.

Diego weighs about 80 kilograms (175 pounds), is nearly 90 centimeters (35 inches) long and 1.5 meters (five feet) tall, if he really stretches his legs and neck.

Diego's contribution to the program on Santa Cruz Island was particularly noteworthy, with park rangers believing him responsible for being the patriarch of at least 40 percent of the 2,000-tortoise population.

Around 50 years ago, there were only two males and 12 females of Diego's species alive on Espanola, and they were too spread out to reproduce. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/diego-a-stud-of-a-giant-tortoise-is-finally-back-home
 
Galapagos, Ecuador
A park ranger carries Diego, a 100-year-old giant tortoise, to Las Tunas, an area off the coast of Española Island as he’s returned to his native island after breeding in captivity for several decades. The tortoise is considered a super male for helping to save his species from extinction
Photograph: Parque Nacional Galápagos/AFP/Getty Images
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Galapagos, Ecuador
A park ranger carries Diego, a 100-year-old giant tortoise, to Las Tunas, an area off the coast of Española Island as he’s returned to his native island after breeding in captivity for several decades. The tortoise is considered a super male for helping to save his species from extinction
Photograph: Parque Nacional Galápagos/AFP/Getty Images
View attachment 27335
Carrying a tortoise of that size on your back in the tropical heat is no mean feat.
 
"The tortoise is considered a super male for helping to save his species from extinction"

He's the Screaming Jay Hawkins of his race.
(And his love song is "I Put a Shell on You":)
 
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