this is lonesome george. it was hoped that a female pinta tortoise might be found with which he could breed, but it was not to be. lonesome george, it seems, is doomed to be the last of his kind. sadly, he died in june 2012. but other surviving galapagos tortoises have had to deal with a different threat... goats. they were brought to the island long ago by both sailors and settlers, and have now gone wild. they crop the vegetation so severely that there's little or nothing left for the tortoises. so, the islands' conservation authorities decided to eradicate feral goats on several of the islands, so that the vegetation could recover and the tortoises get their natural food back. now, on isabella island, as i saw for myself in 2008, the plants have returned to their former lushness and the tortoises' future has been secured. saving large, dramatic species was one of conservationists' first aims. but soon we realized that true conservation means protecting the entire habitat, of which this spectacular species