LONESOME GEORGE IS NOT ALONE

Lonesome George may not be quite so alone after all. Geneticists have uncovered a tortoise on Isabela with clear signs of Pinta ancestry.

There were once thousands of giant tortoises roaming over the volcanic slopes of Pinta, one of the world-famous Galapagos Islands. Today there is just Lonesome George, discovered in 1972 and taken into captivity in the hope that a companion or two might turn up.

The discovery of a tortoise on Wolf Volcano on Isabela with a distinct smattering of Pinta genes gives new hope for Lonesome George as the Charles Darwin Foundation reassesses his options in the light of this new knowledge.

Geneticists have singled out this Isabela tortoise from 27 animals sampled back in 2000. Only recently have they been able to extract DNA from museum specimens collected from Pinta, a step that was needed to expose this individual's connections with Lonesome George. It is a hybrid animal - a cross between a Pinta male and an Isabela female.

Unfortunately for Lonesome George, this new tortoise is also a male. However, it could well have siblings out there, they suggest in Current Biology. There may be around 1500 animals in the region this tortoise was found, estimates the Charles Darwin Foundation, so a sampling trip could uncover other animals of Pinta ancestry.

"It will take a team of about 20 people about three to four weeks to do a first, exhaustive sampling and transmitter-tagging of the tortoises on the volcano," says Gisella Caccone, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University in Connecticut. "Then once individuals of interest are found - either hybrids with Pinta or pure Pinta animals - an equivalent field expedition will have to be mounted to find the animals and bring them in captivity." The survey alone will cost at least $30,000, she estimates, although there would be plenty of other interesting research boxes that could be ticked off during such an expedition.

"This is an extraordinary discovery that injects new hope into Lonesome George's incredible life story." says Henry Nicholls, author of Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon, which has recently been shortlisted for this year's Royal Society General Book Prize.

A successful captive breeding programme involving Lonesome George is still a very long way off. "Even if other tortoises are found, there's no guarantee they will suit George, as they will almost certainly be hybrids and not 100% Pinta animals," says Nicholls. "But if they do and breeding were successful, it would still be an immense challenge to establish a viable population of this critically endangered species."

But, he says, this is certainly the best news that Lonesome George has had in his long lifetime.

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