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Lonesome No More: Lonesome George, The Last Galapagos Giant Tortoise Of His Kind, Has Passed Away

June 26, 2012 / animals, dammit, great now i have the sads, i like turtles (and tortoises too i don't discriminate), lonesome no more, nooooooooo, one of a kind, rest in peace, rip, sadness, the last of his kind, we lost a good one, well that sent me spiraling into a deep dark pit of depression for the rest of the day, would you know my name if i saw you in heaven?

rip-lonesome-george.jpg

Seen here with Fausto Llerena, his caretaker of 40 years, Lonesome George, the last remaining Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni (Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, a subspecies of the Galapagos Tortoise), passed away on Sunday, June 24th. He was around 100.

Scientists had expected him to live another few decades at least.


Various mates had been provided for Lonesome George after he was found in 1972 in what proved unsuccessful attempts to keep his subspecies alive.

Attempts were initially made to mate Lonesome George with two female tortoises from Wolf Volcano. But the eggs they produced were infertile.

Two females from Spanish island's tortoise population, the species most closely related to Pinta tortoises, were placed with him last year.

Sadly, when you're over 100, there are some things even boner pills can't fix. SPOILER: it's your dong. But in all seriousness, I'd like to take this time to give a special thanks to Fausto Llerena, who watched over Lonesome George for the last 40 years, and, at least in my mind, helped alleviate some of that loneliness. You dedicate 40 years of your life to anything, and it's gotta feel like your world is crumbling when it's gone. I'm thinking of you, Fausto. Rest in peace, George.

Thanks to Alex, who has his fingers crossed there are plenty of smexy lady tortoises waiting for ol' George when he FINALLY makes it up the stairs to the pearly gates. Finally, get it? Because tortoises are so slow.

There are Comments

  • I opened my eyes to two crawling giant creatures entering into the
    house, led by their long necks and heads.
    I recognised them immediately as tortoises. I could even argue that they were the ones I
    used to see at home, only they were a hundred times bigger and they must have
    taken hundreds of years to grow to those sizes.
    Apicha and the Bush who seemed weary but happy rode on the backs of the
    beasts around the house muttering some things into their ears. Finally the cavalcade stopped before me as
    though I were their destination. The
    tortoises lifted their heads up, edged closer to me, licked me, breathed on me,
    felt me. I had known tortoises as shy
    creatures which always hid their heads in their shells, but these ones were as
    impudent as the big cat of the previous day.
    At this moment, my fear had taken on the nature of physical pain. Was I going to be the breakfast for these
    beasts? I waited for my death, without a
    scream, without a fuss. from HEART OF WILDERNESS BY ADRIAN ONYANDO

  • ....FUCK! now I'm depressed!

  • Great, now I'm all sad! I'm going to have to go eat chocolate until I puke.

  • painweaver

    RIP George.

  • Closet Nerd

    'Jurassic Park' his ass
    .... just sayin

  • $18922249

    God made the world 6000 years ago so that we could eat it all!!!

  • BillGatesIsYourDaddy

    Next day at the cafeteria....Special of the Day: Turtle Soup

  • Now that is just fucking sad.

  • EmirSc

    Quick! to the clone chamber.

  • :( R.I.P. big guy.

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