one of the highlights of the trip to the galapagos, was seeing lonesome george, and more importantly seeing him in the act of reproduction for the second time ever in his whole entire life! not that seeing that itself was any bit exciting, because to be totally honest it was a little awkward for him (he kept looking over at us!) and for us, but it was history in the making.
apparently this 70-90 year old turtle (estimated to live about 400 years) is the last of its species, and scientists have been attempting for a while to get this picky reptile to mate, with no avail. however, last year, he tried to mate with infertile eggs coming of it. they gave georgey some new mates, and we WITNESSED the action! from that date's happenings, the lady turtle has five new healthy eggs that she had laid, and i was beyond excited. if george has a child from this, as some in our group have concurred, it is due to his cheering section!
here he is (with the second "mate" jealous in the background). go get 'em!
4 comments:
I will admit, your Blog title is especially fitting for this post; I had never thought about 70 year old turtles with names mating to preserve a species before. And I definitley had not thought of a little Latina named Brook watching it in the Galapagos. Thanks for opening my eyes to the fascinating world of turtle mating and genetics.
Hey, Brookie Cookie! I've been wondering how your trip went. I'm so glad that you had a wonderful time. Be sure to post more pictures! Here's a random memory I was thinking of the other day. Remember what mr. goes called you when we were at raging waters oh so long ago. lol! That randomly pop into my head the other day. =) Miss you!
P.S. That turtle is awesome!
don't worry, the pictures are coming!
and OH DEAR about mr. goes....how random was that?? and we were like "who is that creepy guy??" haha....
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