"Lonesome George, No More"

Hello All you Friends of Turtles:

Ah, I've been so busy working on projects (as well as attempting to trim part of "E-Mail Hell") that I missed mentioning World Turtle Day (may 23rd), and World Tortoise Day (May 27). Well, not so with the most recent news in the turtle world, albeit a very sad entry, the death of Lonesome George. For those of you who may not know who Lonesome George is, well, he was the last surviving member of his subspecies of Galapagos Tortoise (Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni). There are currently ten subspecies of Galapagos tortoises still roaming the islands off the coast of Ecuador.

 Lonesome George was the only living member of his subspecies, which lived on Pinta Island in the Galapagos archipelago. I first heard about him in the mid seventies, just a couple years after he was brought to the Charles Darwin Research Center to keep him safe. It appeared that he'd been alone on the island for some time. Off and on I followed his exploits over the years though not to any great degree. Still I would always stop to read any news concerning Lonesome George. There were several expeditions to Pinta Island in the hopes of finding another of George's subspecies but to no avail. He was truly the last of his kind.

There are two shell types found among the various subspecies of Galapagos tortoises; those with dome-shaped shells and those with a shell they call Saddleback because the shell has a similar shape to that of a saddle. Lonesome George was of the saddleback variety which includes the James Island Tortoise and the Hood Island Tortoise, both surviving in low numbers themselves. In fact, the Hood Island Saddlebacks were down to just twelve individuals by the seventies.

Through carefully monitored breeding programs both the Hood and James Island tortoises seem to be making progress with their numbers and appear to be on the road to recovery. Not so for Lonesome George. In the 90's two similar type females from Wolf Volcano on Isabel Island came to live with Lonesome and be his roommates. He ignored them for the most part though there were some eggs after several years though all were infertile. After some more testing it was decided to pull the females as they were really hybrids and not the best choice for George. They replaced them with Hood Island females but there was still no breeding activity. At around a hundred years of age things looked grim.

 Anyway, on Sunday Lonesome George was fond deceased in his habitat area. He had eaten fine on both Friday and Saturday and showed no signs of health problems. Though an autopsy will be performed speculation revolves around George possibly suffering a fatal heart attack. I guess in the coming weeks they'll know for sure. George will be preserved and become part of a new interpretive center for Galapagos Tortoise conservation.

There is still hope that some turtles found in and around Volcan Wolf may harbor genes of the Pinta Island Tortoises. Maybe one day the world will see a partial resurgence of this unique subspecies of Galapagos Tortoise.

 Surely the legacy left behind will live on even long after his passing. His story has done more for creating conservation awareness for many other critically endangered turtles as well as other animals at the brink of extinction. Though Lonesome George may not have been able to father any turtles to carry on the Pinta Island gene his story has helped hatch thousand of "conservation eggs" for other species, including his critically endangered cousins from Hood Island.

 Rest easy my friend, you certainly have done your job in more ways than anyone could ever imagine. Maybe now you'll find your lost brothers and sisters who left Pinta Island long before you. Oh, and by the way, say hello to Archelon for me and tell Chupacabrachelys to stop attacking them goats up there. I hope all of you have a Great Turtley Day!!!
Spawn

"Another Great "Eat Park" Day"

Hello Fellow Shell Shackers:
Well, it was another perfect day the other day so it was off to Eat Park for Gavyn (phenomenal grandson) and I to hit "Eat Park," only this time, we brought a camera. There were lots of turtles out but nowhere near as many as the last trip in December. Still...it was a good day for turtle watching as the following picture shows.



Once out on the dock we began looking for turtles. The first to show up was a nice female Florida Cooter (Pseudemys floridana peninsularis). We've seen her before. She was curios and approached the dock to check out what we were doing. Last year there were some people feeding them some chicken so I'm sure she was looking for a handout.




Shortly after she arrived an algae covered male Peninsular Cooter showed up. He wasn't out to court the female. He was just there checking out what was going on at the dock.

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From out on the lake another chelonian looked on. It was a Red-Eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) and from a distance, it looked to be a female.



As she swam around the dock she settled in by the male Peninsular Cooter. No, she wasn't there to breed with the male slider (that's a topic for another post), she was there to see if he was getting any food that she wasn't getting.



She hadn't missed a thing as we hadn't fed them anything. Once the three turtles continued hovering in the nice sun-warmed water it was time to give them a treat so Gavyn opened the bag of cat food I handed to him and fed them the few pieces that were in the bag. We purposely only brought a little because they are wild turtles and need to forage and hunt for their food most of the time.
It didn't take but a couple seconds before a fairly large Florida Softshell (Apalone Ferox) showed up to bully his way into the tiny morsels of food being offered.



Amazingly the Soft shell Turtle was very gentle, not snapping at any of the other turtles though definitely trying to snatch up most of the food. It was kind of comical to watch. After all the food was gone (it only took them a couple minutes, if that, to gobble it all up) they still stayed by the dock area swimming around. This allowed several new people walking the boardwalks to see three species of native Florida turtles up close and personal. After a little while Gavyn and I left, taking with us the satisfaction of..."Another Great Eat Park Day."
Have a Wonderful Day!!!
The "Creature"

"Eat Park Turtles"

Hello Fellow Shackers:
Boy, what a gap between posts. Sorry about that. The reason is not one of lack of things to write but having too many ideas and not being able to figure what to write about. Yeah, I know, lame excuse. I agree.
Anyway, Christmas went well though it was a little quiet at times for me. I didn't go to one family gathering as I wanted to stay home with my daughter on Christmas eve. Her son was with his dad so she wanted to stay home. It sounded good to me but after one early movie, "Super 8," which was over by 8:00 P. M., she went out with her friends so I was home alone. I made use of the "quiet time" and got lots of writing done on my next book.
On Sunday, we went to my niece's house and enjoyed a Christmas ham dinner. It was excellent and we went out to check out their critters which included Bearded Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Horned Frogs, and one Box Turtle that eats anything offered it. Well, that was all good and the evening went smoothly.
It was on the 26th ,though, the day after Christmas that I got one of my neatest presents. We had honorable grandson back (actually he came home early on Sunday) so he and I took a little trip to one of our fave parks...Eat Park. That's not really it's name but to grandson that is what the park's name is. Just on a whim I brought a little food for the turtles. We got out on the lake at the park and walked out onto the dock and saw a few turtles (The day after x-mas??/ Why not, it was 75 degrees F.). Anyway, there was a young couple and their little boy there and they watched as we offered a few morsels of food to the aquatic chelonians. All of a sudden the lake was alive with the sound of music (oops, wrong story, actually, no sound at all, let's try again)...alive with turtles coming from everywhere. There were nearly thirty turtles in all; Sliders (Pseudemys peninsularis), one Red Ear (Trachemys Scripta elegans), Red-Bellied Terrapins (Pseudemys nelsoni), and Florida Softshell Turtles (Apalone ferox). None of them showed any fear and we all were treated to a neat feeding display by the lake's turtles. There was one particular Red-Belly that had a very interesting pattern of red rays on it's carapace. I'll go back when it warms up and get some pics to post. It was a fun day and before leaving for the playground the couple told me about a lake nearby called Turtle Lake where they actually have feed dispensers to get turtle food from. I'm definitely going to check that place out and get some pics.
I really enjoyed watching the Lake's residents as they presented themselves. So much so that I added it to my list of presents for the year; "A day with the turtles." My grandson enjoyed it to and got to go to the playground as well.
Have a Great Turtley Day!!!
John