No mate for Lonesome George

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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As a small note...

Very reccently I attended a herpetological society meeting where Rick Staub spoke about the trip he had taken to the Galapagos, while showing slides of the tortoises that he was able to see, he of course mentioned the difficulties encountered by a few subspecies which leads naturally right into Lonesome George.

At this juncture I wish I had asked for a few more specifics but... He did mention that some tortoise droppings were found during the early-mid eighties, which isn't exactly the same as finding say... a half dozen females of the subspecies... but because the droppings were not his, hope is held out that there may exist at least a few more tortoises on the island.

'course... finding feces twenty years ago and no evidence since makes it a fairly faint hope... but there was evidence of another tortoise.

Dr. Staub's talk was great by the way, I encourage anyone who has a chance to hear him speak about any subject to jump at the chance.

but because the droppings were not his, hope is held out that there may exist at least a few more tortoises on the island.

"His" being Lonesome George's... Not Dr. Staub's.