Pinta Island Tortoises Now Extinct

The Galapagos tortoise, often called the rarest animal on earth due to its count of one (one), is now extinct after the death of its last living member, Lonesome George, at age 100.

Conservationists have attempted to mate El Solitario Jorge (as locals call him) with female tortoises that were as genetically similar as possible, but all attempts have yielded unviable eggs. George has lived in Ecuador's Galapagos National Park since the early 1970's, and unless a turtle named Tony, living at the Prague zoo, is proven to be a member of George's species, was the last surviving member of this rare island tortoise. 

The passing was noted by the Internet and Wikipedia's entry on Pinta Island tortoises switched from Endangered to Extinct following George's death on Sunday.

The Galapagos archipelago

The Ecuadorian archipelago of Galapagos is famous for both the journey of the Beagle that carried Charles Darwin in his famous expedition and for its amazing number of endemic species ( species that can't be found anywhere else on the world). The islands were declared a national park by Ecuador in 1959, the centenary year of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species. In 1986, 70 000 square kilometers of ocean surrounding the islands were also declared a marine reserve; in 1990 the archipelago became a whale reserve. 1978 was the year that UNESCO recognized the archipelago as a World Heritage Site and a biosphere reserve in 1985, and in 2010 the organization removed the archipelago from its list of sites endangered by environmental threats or overuse. 

The marine iguana, one of Galapagos' more famous residents 

The endemic species include the famous Galapagos land iguanas, the marine iguana, the Galapagos tortoise  (Chelonoidis nigra  ) that named the island, the Galapagos green turtle, sea cucumbers, the flightless cormorant (Phalacrocorax harrisi ), the great frigatebird and magnificent frigatebird, the blue-footed booby (popular for their large blue feet), the Galapagos penguin (the only living tropical penguins), the waved albatross, the Galapagos hawk, many endemic mockingbirds (made famous by Darwin), thirteen species of tanagers (called finches by Darwin) and the Galapagos sea lions.