The difference a day makes

[andrewducker]

Comments

[henriksdal]

:(

I went to the Royal Museum not long after the Baji had been declared functionally extinct, and in the "endangered animals" section where it once was was an empty space and a sign saying "This exhibit has been removed"

It was so sad

[henriksdal]

Other sad things: There's so few Right Whales left that researchers have named them all

[drdoug]

Um ... it depends on which Right Whale you mean

[henriksdal]

Ummmm I would have clarified but I got distracted trying to find the story of how they rediscovered that massive insect they thought extinct, on a tiny island off the coast of New Zealand. I think? Have a search for that, it's a great story if you can find it. (the Right Whale anecdote was half remembered from a Marine Bio lecture 12 years ago)

[octopoid_horror]

George didn't do enough screwing, that was the problem!

[don_fitch]

Shouldn't that be "George's grandparents (& farther back) didn't do enough screwing..."? I suspect that George got enough food & water, and reasonably comfortable temperatures, and probably enough opportunites to screw (regardless of whether or not the results were productive ... and I kinda doubt that tortoises give a damn about that, or are even able to comprehend the idea) to consider that he had A Good Life.

If the Homo sapiens (alba, male, old-geezer?) scientists who developed the "subspecies" concept are unhappy... well... as the last surviving member of the Emil Schachenman family (at the age of 83, unlikely to pocreate), my comment is on the order of "Yeah, that kind of thing happens".

[innerbrat]

subspecies. Not that it matters.

[a_pawson]

Like pretty much everyone who has been to Galapagos I saw George in his enclosure. He was at the end of the day just another giant tortoise, yet he somehow became a whole lot more than that. He became a symbol of the struggle not just to protect Galapagos, but for the whole conservation movement. It's a bit of a surprise he is dead as 100 is young for a giant tortoise, but it looks like the last of the Pinta tortoises has ceased to be.

[pigwotflies]

:( Farewell Lonesome George. We shall not see your like again.