Lonesome George not the last of his species after all?

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It looks like they've found some hybrids and that there is a possibility that there might be others on the island after all.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... e-science/

I think a lot of folks here on WP can relate to the Loneliness of King George.

When I was a kid I once watched a cartoon about threatened animals called No Man's Valley, it was about a Californian Condor who flies to this magical land where endangered and even extinct animals live in harmony, and there was a tortoise named Lonesome George who was the last of his kind. Was he actually a real tortoise, or is this inspired by a different story?

^^^^Lonesome was suppose to be the last of the Pinta island land Tortoises,he passed in June.His story has always made me sad,I know they were trying to breed him to a closely related species.
Thank you so much for posting this persian85033, I hope they are able to preserve them.
There is one female Yangze river turtle left ,her name is China Girl ,and two males,they breed them a year or so ago but none of the eggs hatched. I hope they are successful in the future.

Lonesome George's story has made me sad, too. I was especially upset when I heard he had died in June. When they found him, I think it was believed already that the Pinta Island tortoise was extinct. They brought him to the research center for his own safety and to breed him. There was a project going on where they were going to send him back to his native island, along with some other tortoises of a different species. He never got to see his native Pinta Island again. But let's hope that the project is successful and that people don't mess up and cause the other Pinta Island tortoises and Pinta Island hybrid tortoises to die as well. In some of the islands, part of the efforts to bring back other species of Galapagos tortoises involves finding the eggs and taking them to a laboratory to hatch and taking the hatchlings back once they reach a certain age or size. Since people brought rats and other invasive species, they sometimes eat or kill the hatchlings, so they bring them back when they're too big to be eaten.

I'll have to look up some more info on the river turtles. I know that just about all marine turtles are endangered.

Very good news!

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer