R.I.P Lonesome George

[RAMChYLD]

Oh, I hate hearing things like this.   

+1

I agree that they should just give cloning a try. Once they can get a genetic copy up, then they can try to have another shot at getting it to mate with the female of a similar species.

[gemini_pony]

:c So sad!

[xeevee]

Did you know that one of the reasons this has happened, along with the rest of the giant tortoise population being so threatened, is that they are delicious.  Like apparently the most delicious thing in the entire world.  The first descriptions of them hardly spoke about them in any way except 'holy cow this thing tastes soooo good.'  Even Darwin ate the most significant find supporting evolutionary theory on the way home because it tasted too good to leave alive.  They were also really convenient for sailors to take on ships alive, so they could have fresh meat.

Pretty sad really that it took so long for us to be able to realise that we shouldn't keep eating them.  We humans have a lot to answer for really.

[Loona]

xeevee: that's something I wanted to mention as well. instead of desperately trying to clone last minute when realising we did something irreversible (and yeah, as invaderhorizongreen stated, cloning's not really a possibility) we should try to think before doing things.

[Yuitsu]

Tis sad. The tortoises they found on the other island and were trying to get him to breed with were hybrids of George's species and another one, so who knows, there might be some there still.
We do find previously thought extinct animals though and the work zoos are doing to get numbers up now is brilliant. Of course if the animals aren't good at breeding that's another matter. Like pandas - they live alone apart from when breeding. They learn how to breed from seeing other pandas at it. Silly panda.
The biggest current extinction threat is to every single frog species from bacteria (I think)

[hyenacub]

I LOVE when people find something thought to be extinct.  I hope that this big guy has some living relatives.

[Aflame]

:(poor george

[Gingerbread]

Yep exctint species are re-discovered a lot. I think the most important one for me was Dryococelus australis (I am a major entomological phasmid geek )It caused such a storm when it was re-discovered and now many zoos around the world have this species successfully in culture

[xeevee]

I really doubt this will be, it a giant animal from a tiny row of desolate islands.  And as its a sub-species, he's from one specific one of those islands.   Maybe there are some babies hiding somewhere, but it would be beyond a miracle if that was the case.

I guess the good news is, it was a sub-species.  Ecology wise, other sub-species fit the same neiche.  It is still very sad though.

[Eviecorn]

Very sad to hear of his passing, and with that the end of his kind.  :/

[hyenacub]

Oh that walking sticks?  I read about that, it was the coolest thing!  And it was a TINY colony they found.

[Gingerbread]

Yep, literally a handful of individuals on one bush that was stupid close to going over the cliff at the next hint of a rock slide.

[hyenacub]

On the underside...  No wonder no one found them.  So there IS hope.  Maybe some of George's relatives are hiding in the deeps. Or maybe, unbeknwonst to biologists, ther are a few elsewhere.

[bagheera86]

Oh ****, I didn't expect an animal species of any kind to go extinct at any point of my lifetime. wtf

They have, cheetahs and tigers are next to go.

Anyway. This really annoys the freckles offa me.

[Moonracer]

Oh ****, I didn't expect an animal species of any kind to go extinct at any point of my lifetime. wtf

Actually, Lonesome George might not be the only one... Baiji, the freshwater dolphin subspecie that lived in the Yangtze River in China, is presumed to be extinct since 2006.

There are several other species that have been declared extinct. Despite the fact that the number of extinct species is significantly smaller than in the past (thanks to the extensive wildlife preservation campaigns and the breeding programs), it's always so sad to hear that certain species have become extinct...

Hope humanity will finally learn it's lesson, and shows a little more respect for our planet and it's other inhabitants...

R.I.P Lonesome George.