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[email protected] www.wwf.org.co Oficina Principal Calle 18 de febrero s/n y Piqueros Puerto Ayora – Galápagos Ecuador Press Release Immediate Release Puerto Ayora, June 25, 2012 Lonesome George, the last Pinta giant tortoise has died Lonesome George, the last individual of the giant tortoises from Pinta Island in his pen. Photo: David Jimenez‐Henao Lonesome George, the last individual of the Pinta giant tortoises (Geochelone abingdoni) died in his pen at the Giant Tortoise Breeding Center in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island on Sunday June 24th. George was found in 1972 by a group of eager Galapagos National Park (GNP) wardens who were searching earnestly to ascertain whether the whole Pinta species population was extinct. Lonesome George was living in a special pen in the “Fausto Llerena Captive Breeding Center” in the GNP headquarters in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island. At the breeding center, GNP, with support from the Charles Darwin Foundation and other national and international scientific institutions were researching for ways to help perpetuate George’s lineage. Unfortunately, to date these efforts had been unsuccessful. George died in the company of two Española females, the genetically most closely‐ related species to the Pinta tortoises. George’s body is being kept under controlled conditions until a necropsy can be performed to identify the cause of his death. George is thought to have been more than 100 years old. The Galapagos Islands, a province of the Republic of Ecuador, is considered Earth´s natural laboratory of biological sciences.