Lonesome George I-II: The Last of his kind (7/35)

Lonesome George I-II: The Last of his kind (7/35)

Part 1: No-one actually knows how they came here, for geologically Galapagos is a young archipelago - of volcanic origin, created from fire and water. Thus the turtles, iguanas and blue-footed boobies must have come here from one of the distant continents, before disappearing there. We do know, however, how they reached the verge of extinction: seafarers decimated the turtles by having them stored for weeks as a live meat supply, and animals which they brought with them and which had never existed here - cats, rats, dogs and goats - maltreated the island's creatures. Some hunted the iguanas or devoured the eggs of the turtles and boobies, others destroyed the vegetation. Hence no more than a dozen turtles or iguanas were left on the island. A sad symbol of this loss is "Lonesome George" - a male giant turtle, the only one to be found on the island of Pinta. He is the last of his kind - when George dies, yet another species will have disappeared forever from our planet. In order to at least save the remaining Galapagos species from this fate, the Charles Darwin Research Station has launched several rescue programmes in an attempt at damage limitation. Part2: As a lover he is a failure. He remains impervious to the charms of the several ladies available to him. "Lonesome George" prefers his own company. Not that he is too choosy or too old - for a giant turtle his 70 years make him a sprightly young thing. Evidently Ms Right is simply not among the partners on offer. Lonesome George is the last of his kind; when he dies "Geochelone nigra abingdoni", as scientists name his species, will have disappeared forever from this planet. Recently this archipelago hit the headlines due to the threat of an oil catastrophe; meanwhile, this disaster has been averted, however the gradual dying out of the species continues. For George is not the only one whose species is threatened by extinction on Galapagos; but he is the only one whose fate has already been sealed.