Though the new hybrid is a male, it raises the possibility that a female of George's Pinta sub-species may be found.
Credit: Charles Darwin Research Station
CHICAGO: The Galapagos tortoise, Lonesome George, could lose his ranking as the world's rarest living creature. Geneticists revealed yesterday that they may have discovered his distant cousin.
The scientists hope that another tortoise from George's subspecies (Geochelone nigra abingdonii) could be living on the neighbouring island of Isabela, offering new hope that conservationists may yet get him to sire some offspring.
George - who has stubbornly refused to mate with the female tortoises from a related Wolf Island sub-species (Geochelone nigra becki) placed in his pen - has been considered the last of his kind since his discovery on the island of Pinta in 1971.
Rarest creature
There were once many thousands of giant tortoises grazing the slopes of Pinta, but George was the first to be found there since 1906. His wrinkled face became a symbol of how human activity leads to extinction, and the meter-wide, 88-kilogram tortoise has long held the Guinness Book of World Records title of "rarest living creature."
Three of the 14 species of Galapagos tortoises - which helped Charles Darwin develop his theories on evolution - have become extinct because of hunting by sailors and competition for food from goats introduced in the 1950's.The loss of George would have brought that total to four.
"Even after 35 years, Lonesome George seems uninterested in passing on his unique genes and has failed to produce offspring," said Michael Russello of the University of British Columbia in Okanagan, Canada. "The continuing saga surrounding the search for a mate has positioned Lonesome George as a potent conservation icon, not just for Galapagos, but worldwide."
Clear hybrid
Russello is part of an international team, headed by researchers at Yale University in Connecticut, U.S., who have identified a tortoise that has half his genes in common with George and is "clearly a first generation hybrid between the native tortoises from the islands of Isabela and Pinta."
The team hopes that with further testing they will be able to find a genetically pure feamle Pinta tortoise among the 2,000 tortoises living on Isabela and start a breeding program. They revealed their findings yesterday in the journal Current Biology.
"These findings offer the potential for transforming the legacy of Lonesome George from an enduring symbol or rarity to a conservation success story," said Yale biologist Jeffrey Powell.
It will take a team of about 20 people around two months to do an exhaustive sampling and transmitter-tagging of the tortoises on the volcano - and then to find the potential Pinta tortoises and bring them in captivity.
