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PRESS RELEASE: Hopes Dashed for Lonesome George
04 December 2008
Although it is difficult to tell exactly what this elderly tortoise is thinking, the news from the Galapagos National Park today cannot have enlivened Lonesome George’s day.
Park wardens have confirmed that there is no immediate hope for George’s lineage to continue. Galapagos Conservancy joins the many individuals and institutions who are saddened by the news that none of the eggs found in George’s corral in Galapagos are fertile.
CDF Executive Director Graham Watkins commented, “We are aware that this kind of event – especially with such long-lived species as the giant tortoises – is just part of the process we’ve been involved in for almost 50 years.”
Former head of science at CDF, Linda Cayot , who worked for years with George, believes all is not lost. “From the outset, we said that there was a real prospect of getting infertile eggs. Now, after the incubation period and the proof of infertility, we just have to keep on working. What’s more, now there’s an opportunity to place Española females in George’s pen, and they are genetically closer to him than the ones that laid the eggs, which were from the Wolf Volcano population. The process will continue. Those of us doing science in Galapagos are willing to keep on working and waiting.”
Freddy Villalva from the Galapagos National Park reports that there are still two other eggs which may hatch in January, though he himself recognizes that there is little chance for these two eggs to be fertile.
After 130 days in the incubators at the Galapagos National Park’s Fausto Llerena Giant Tortoise Captive Breeding Center, eight eggs from Lonesome George’s two female companions were opened to analyze their contents at the GNP’s Fabricio Valverde Laboratory. The tests only confirmed that the eggs were never fertilized, according to GNP technical staff who conducted the analysis along with a group of tortoise genetics experts.
Gisella Caccone, leader of a Yale University genetics group that has been working for more than fifteen years with giant Galapagos tortoises, explained that “all of the eggs that should have hatched in late November were analyzed to find some sign of an embryo, but unfortunately none showed the least trace of embryo development.”
Expedition to Wolf Volcano
A group of seven visiting geneticists and twenty-six Galapagos National Park rangers began an expedition today to Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island. Last year, a hybrid tortoise was found with Pinta Island genes, and the group will be taking blood samples from tortoises in this immediate area to determine if there are more hybrid individuals with Pinta Island and Wolf Volcano tortoise genes. The project will help to inform next steps concerning the future of the Geochelone Abigdoni species, of which Lonesome George is the last survivor.
Contact Galapagos Conservancy with questions at comments@galapagos.org or call our office at 703-383-0077.
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