Galapagos: Lonesome George

Today was a trip to town. We took in a bit of shopping and a spin through the Charles Darwin Research Center. The center's most famous inhabitant is Lonesome George. Poor George is the last of his kind, or at least the last of his kind known. There is a $20,000 reward out for female saddleback tortoises from the island of Pinta.

He actually isn't so lonesome. He shares his pen with two female saddlebacks from a different island. They are a different species, but scientists think that they might be closely enough related that they could be able to produce offspring.

Mostly this has gone nowhere. For twelve years, George only appears to have tried to mate with one of the females one time. He ended up falling asleep on top of the poor thing and the mating was unsuccessful. He is estimated to be about 90 years old, fairly young for a giant tortoise, but still give the guy a break. He got something done – the female laid eggs, but none of them were fertilized.

A Belgian volunteer “with lovely soft hands” (as described by Juan, our guide) managed to collect some sperm from George. It turns out that the last of his kind is not producing viable semen. And there is, so I am told, plans in the works to introduce saddlebacks from a different island to Pinta. The different species play similar ecological roles on the different islands. Their diets are roughly the same, and they play an important role in seed distribution for plants. Finches also rely on them as a source for food. The two species have a mutualistic relationship, where the finches east the pests off of the turtles. It is hoped that a similar enough tortoise will fill the same ecological niche.

However, not all hope is lost for George. The bounty is still out on a potential mate. It is hoped that once he is meets a female of his own kind, his sperm might be revitalized. And after all these years, it is still a possibility. A male from the Isabella, the main island, seems to be wild cross between a Pinta tortoise and the local tortoises found near Wolf Volcano. A brief study has found that 8 of 27 tortoises around that volcano have genetic traits suggesting that there are Pinta tortoises on the island.

Given the long life spans of giant tortoises, it is also possible that one of them is still alive in a private collection or zoo.

Even if a mate can’t be found, George might not be the last of his kind. Genetic tests on a tortoise named Tony at a zoo in Prague suggest that he might also be from Pinta. So, maybe, Lonesome George can finally have a friend he wouldn’t want to fall asleep on top of.

Travel notes: That afternoon we headed up to a private ranch with a healthy population of wild tortoises. We began the trip with a short jaunt down a lava tube, which are basically caves caused by lava flows rather than running water. Normally there is an abundance of wildlife in these caves, including bats and owls, but today there were none.

We ended up seeing numerous tortoises and learning about the moister, high elevation areas of these islands. It was fascinating. Afterwards, we gathered at the rancher's home, where we had coffee with rum and relaxed in the shade (the island was incredibly hot and humid.). After a while, Juan brought out his guitar and started singing. Another group of Ecuadorian tourists came up and joined us. Their guide tried his hand at singing as well, He had a wonderful tenor voice and bBefore long, everyone was singing and dancing and clapping.

It was incredible. I have been told that the American National Park Service used to require rangers to lead sing-alongs. Last summer we had a discussion about how few rangers could successfully pull that off. In fact, we all wanted to meet the ranger who could. Who would have suspected that it would turn out to be Juan?