Lonesome George

Lonesome George born in 1912 and died in 2012

He was the last known male of the subspecies of Pinta Island tortoises. He lived in the National Park of Ecuador with his keeper Fausto Llerena and he became known as the rarest creature in the world. He also became a symbol of the Galapagos Islands, which attracted almost 180,000 visitors a year. Scientists estimate he was about 100 years old but it's known that they can live up to an age of 200. George became part of the Galapagos National Park breeding programme when scientists discovered he was the only one of his species.For decades, environmentalists tried unsuccessfully to get the Pinta Island tortoise to reproduce with females from a similar subspecies on the Galapagos Islands. So after 15 years of living with a female tortoise, they became a couple, but the eggs were infertile. Finally he died 24 june 2012 with no offspring. Park officials said they would carry out a 'post-mortem' to determine the cause of his death and maybe they would embalmed his body to conserve him for future generations.

Tortoises were abundant on the Galapagos islands until the late 19th century but they were hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen to the point of extinction. In addition the introduction of wild goats ate the vegetation that formed their diet, causing the destruction of their habitat.