The Loneliest Animal In The World
Transcript
00:00 Meet Lonesome George, the loneliest animal in the world. He was a male Pinta Island tortoise,
00:05 and the last known individual of the subspecies in the world. George was first seen on the island
00:10 of Pinta on November 1, 1971, but the vegetation in the island had been devastated by invasive
00:16 species, with the addition of rampant poaching, George had to be relocated for his own safety,
00:21 to the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island. Researchers and biologists hoped
00:27 that more Pinta Island tortoise would be found, but unfortunately no other tortoise was found,
00:32 and the subspecies was pronounced as functionally extinct. Many mating attempts were done in order
00:37 to save the subspecies, by pairing George with multiple females from different subspecies,
00:42 but none of them was successful. And in June 24, 2012, the National Park announced that Lonesome
00:49 George was found dead, by his caretaker, who looked after him for 40 years. And with George's
00:55 death, the subspecies was announced as formerly extinct.