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- Thread starter Oh8ch
- Start date
ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
Al Gore invented Lonesome George.
I saw him last week:
<TABLE cellSpacing=10 cellPadding=0 width=448 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=270>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][SIZE=+2]The Story of [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][SIZE=+2]
Lonesome George[/SIZE][/FONT]
</TD><TD width=160>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2>The small island of Pinta is located in the North of the Galapagos archipelago. One of the 11 remaining races of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus abingdoni) comes from Pinta, but their history is a tragic one. Whalers and sealers heavily depleted their numbers in the 19th century, some ships taking many tortoises at a time. The tortoises were a good food source as they could live up to a year in the holds of the ships without food and water. Females were generally taken first as they are much smaller than the males and could be found in the more accessible lowland areas during the egg laying season. Before Lonesome George was found, the last reported sighting of tortoises on Pinta was in 1906, when the island was visited by the Californian Academy of Sciences. They collected three males, which were the last tortoises seen on Pinta for the next 60 years.
Another issue for the Giant Tortoises of Pinta Island was the presence of goats, which were released by fishermen in the 1950's as an alternative food source. These introduced mammals destroyed much of the vegetation and directly competed with any remaining tortoises for food. The population of goats grew rapidly, devastating the vegetation and causing erosion.
In 1971, National Park wardens hunting goats on Pinta came across a single male tortoise. He became known as "Lonesome George". His name derived most certainly from being the only surviving example of his species and "George," after the U.S. actor George Goebel, who called himself "Lonesome George" in a television program. It was decided to bring the animal back to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where there was already a captive breeding program for the giant tortoises. Many years later, "Lonesome George" was placed in a corral with female tortoises (Geochelone elephantopus becki) from Wolf Volcano, located on Isabela Island.
The hope was that by placing these animals together, the Pinta race through "Lonesome George" would pass along at least some of his genes into future generations. The Wolf race were the closest morphologically to the Pinta race. The aim was to maintain George's sexual activity for the possibility that a Pinta female was found, or at least back crossing to create as close an offspring as possible to the Pinta characteristics. Unfortunately, he has yet to succeed in breeding successfully with these females, and we do not yet fully understand the reasons. "Mounting" took place, but no eggs resulted. This could be because of the genetic distance between George and the tortoises of Northern Isabela.
Scientist Edward Lewis has made DNA scans of tortoises all over the world without finding a match. George's diet is being investigated to ensure there is no deficiency that could be causing his failure to reproduce. We have considered the theoretical possibility of cloning lonesome George, manipulating the gender of the clone, and trying to produce a female. This is theoretically possible, but practically very difficult, and untried to date. Before we attempt cloning of Lonesome George, we feel we must exhaust all other possibilities first.
There is the possibility that other tortoises could exist on George's native island of Pinta. Young tortoises are very small and secretive, and any young tortoises present when George was removed from Pinta would most likely have been overlooked. These tortoises would now be adults and technically easier to find, except that the vegetation of Pinta has responded vigorously to the removal of goats (which were previously destroying this vegetation.) The island is now very hard to get around, and a major campaign must be undertaken to systematically cover the island and definitively conclude that there are no remaining Pinta tortoises to use as a mate for Lonesome George.
Interestingly, we have another pressing need for thorough, systematic work on Pinta. Several years ago, we thought that the last goats had been removed from Pinta. Unfortunately, that conclusion was premature, and the few goats that remained have begun to multiply, and while the vegetation is not immediately threatened, we must act quickly and decisively to COMPLETELY remove the goats this time.
Because the main difficulty in working on Pinta is the thick vegetation, we are proposing to combine these two efforts and use much of the same logistical support to thoroughly scour the island for remaining tortoises and the last goats. The major expenses are boat charters, salaries, and supplies, which are needed to support the construction of tight network of trails to be cut through the vegetation, allowing access to every hectare of the island. Once such a network is established, we will use a combination of visual searches and possibly trained dogs to search for tortoises and goats.
This campaign would include the eradication of goats and a definitive answer about the potential presence of tortoises. If we can rid Pinta of the goats and find a mate for Lonesome George, we'll be a long ways towards restoring the ecology of one of the most fascinating Galapagos Islands.
There is currently a team in Pinta implementing the first stages of the restoration of the island, which includes locating the last of the goats on that island. They will be working there consistently during the next year and throughout the course of their project they hope to also find any remaining tortoises on the island. The Park warden who found George is also part of the team and has nearly thirty years experience in Galapagos.
If our efforts are unsuccessful, when "Lonesome George" eventually dies, his race ends with him, and will join the other races of giant tortoise that have become extinct in the Galapagos. Heavy depredation by humans was the problem in the past. Today, one of the biggest problems facing the endemic Giant Galapagos tortoise is that of introduced species.
The National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station are close to eradicating the troublesome goat from Pinta. Many of the native plant species have recovered. There is hope for the recovery of Pinta as there is hope that one day we will find a mate for "Lonesome George" or another Pinta tortoise. It would be a true shame to see the end of another unique species of Galapagos, a single survivor of thousands of years of evolution.
Current data about "Lonesome George"
Age: estimated to be 70-80 years
Weight: 88kgs
Size: 102 cm length of shell
Food: George is fed 500 grams of papaya fruit 5 times per week.
Once a week 100 grams of a special balanced diet.
Three times a week 50 grams of grass.
Health: No indication of any illness or disease
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/Restoring/george.html
I saw him last week:
<TABLE cellSpacing=10 cellPadding=0 width=448 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=270>[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][SIZE=+2]The Story of [/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular][SIZE=+2]
Lonesome George[/SIZE][/FONT]
</TD><TD width=160>
</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top colSpan=2>The small island of Pinta is located in the North of the Galapagos archipelago. One of the 11 remaining races of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus abingdoni) comes from Pinta, but their history is a tragic one. Whalers and sealers heavily depleted their numbers in the 19th century, some ships taking many tortoises at a time. The tortoises were a good food source as they could live up to a year in the holds of the ships without food and water. Females were generally taken first as they are much smaller than the males and could be found in the more accessible lowland areas during the egg laying season. Before Lonesome George was found, the last reported sighting of tortoises on Pinta was in 1906, when the island was visited by the Californian Academy of Sciences. They collected three males, which were the last tortoises seen on Pinta for the next 60 years.
Another issue for the Giant Tortoises of Pinta Island was the presence of goats, which were released by fishermen in the 1950's as an alternative food source. These introduced mammals destroyed much of the vegetation and directly competed with any remaining tortoises for food. The population of goats grew rapidly, devastating the vegetation and causing erosion.
In 1971, National Park wardens hunting goats on Pinta came across a single male tortoise. He became known as "Lonesome George". His name derived most certainly from being the only surviving example of his species and "George," after the U.S. actor George Goebel, who called himself "Lonesome George" in a television program. It was decided to bring the animal back to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where there was already a captive breeding program for the giant tortoises. Many years later, "Lonesome George" was placed in a corral with female tortoises (Geochelone elephantopus becki) from Wolf Volcano, located on Isabela Island.
The hope was that by placing these animals together, the Pinta race through "Lonesome George" would pass along at least some of his genes into future generations. The Wolf race were the closest morphologically to the Pinta race. The aim was to maintain George's sexual activity for the possibility that a Pinta female was found, or at least back crossing to create as close an offspring as possible to the Pinta characteristics. Unfortunately, he has yet to succeed in breeding successfully with these females, and we do not yet fully understand the reasons. "Mounting" took place, but no eggs resulted. This could be because of the genetic distance between George and the tortoises of Northern Isabela.
Scientist Edward Lewis has made DNA scans of tortoises all over the world without finding a match. George's diet is being investigated to ensure there is no deficiency that could be causing his failure to reproduce. We have considered the theoretical possibility of cloning lonesome George, manipulating the gender of the clone, and trying to produce a female. This is theoretically possible, but practically very difficult, and untried to date. Before we attempt cloning of Lonesome George, we feel we must exhaust all other possibilities first.
There is the possibility that other tortoises could exist on George's native island of Pinta. Young tortoises are very small and secretive, and any young tortoises present when George was removed from Pinta would most likely have been overlooked. These tortoises would now be adults and technically easier to find, except that the vegetation of Pinta has responded vigorously to the removal of goats (which were previously destroying this vegetation.) The island is now very hard to get around, and a major campaign must be undertaken to systematically cover the island and definitively conclude that there are no remaining Pinta tortoises to use as a mate for Lonesome George.
Interestingly, we have another pressing need for thorough, systematic work on Pinta. Several years ago, we thought that the last goats had been removed from Pinta. Unfortunately, that conclusion was premature, and the few goats that remained have begun to multiply, and while the vegetation is not immediately threatened, we must act quickly and decisively to COMPLETELY remove the goats this time.
Because the main difficulty in working on Pinta is the thick vegetation, we are proposing to combine these two efforts and use much of the same logistical support to thoroughly scour the island for remaining tortoises and the last goats. The major expenses are boat charters, salaries, and supplies, which are needed to support the construction of tight network of trails to be cut through the vegetation, allowing access to every hectare of the island. Once such a network is established, we will use a combination of visual searches and possibly trained dogs to search for tortoises and goats.
This campaign would include the eradication of goats and a definitive answer about the potential presence of tortoises. If we can rid Pinta of the goats and find a mate for Lonesome George, we'll be a long ways towards restoring the ecology of one of the most fascinating Galapagos Islands.
There is currently a team in Pinta implementing the first stages of the restoration of the island, which includes locating the last of the goats on that island. They will be working there consistently during the next year and throughout the course of their project they hope to also find any remaining tortoises on the island. The Park warden who found George is also part of the team and has nearly thirty years experience in Galapagos.
If our efforts are unsuccessful, when "Lonesome George" eventually dies, his race ends with him, and will join the other races of giant tortoise that have become extinct in the Galapagos. Heavy depredation by humans was the problem in the past. Today, one of the biggest problems facing the endemic Giant Galapagos tortoise is that of introduced species.
The National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station are close to eradicating the troublesome goat from Pinta. Many of the native plant species have recovered. There is hope for the recovery of Pinta as there is hope that one day we will find a mate for "Lonesome George" or another Pinta tortoise. It would be a true shame to see the end of another unique species of Galapagos, a single survivor of thousands of years of evolution.
Current data about "Lonesome George"
Age: estimated to be 70-80 years
Weight: 88kgs
Size: 102 cm length of shell
Food: George is fed 500 grams of papaya fruit 5 times per week.
Once a week 100 grams of a special balanced diet.
Three times a week 50 grams of grass.
Health: No indication of any illness or disease
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
http://www.darwinfoundation.org/Restoring/george.html
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