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In a pen on the Galapagos island of Santa Cruz in the Pacific Ocean is a large black tortoise, Lonesome George. He is the last known survivor of his species, the giant saddleback tortoises of neighboring Pinta Island.

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When the Galapagos were discovered by Spanish explorers in 1535, hundreds of thousands of giant tortoises roamed the islands. (Galapago is the Spanish word for tortoise.) Survivors of prehistoric times when reptiles were of enormous size, some of the tortoises grow to four feet in length and weigh as much as 500 pounds. They may live for more than a century.

Massacre of the Innocents

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In the 1700’s and early 1800’s, their numbers were drastically reduced by pirates and whalers who filled the holds of their ships with live tortoises to provide fresh meat for the long voyages; tortoises have an extraordinary ability to survive without food or water for a year or more.

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Slaughter continued as late as the 1930’s. Traders killed the tortoises for their meat and clean-tasting oil, and scientists killed or captured the animals in the name of research.

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Even when the human persecution stopped, the tortoises were still not safe. Pigs, dogs, rats, and cats introduced into the islands destroyed tortoise nests and eggs and preyed upon the young.

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Then, in 1965, scientists at the Charles Darwin Research Station based in the Galapagos set up an emergency program to save the giant tortoises from extinction. They found that three groups of tortoise were in particular danger: those on Pinzon, Hood, and Pinta islands.

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The researchers discovered that the only tortoises on Pinzon Island were veterans. For at least 50 years every egg and young tortoise had been eaten by black rats. To ensure the continued existence of the species, the scientists collected eggs and took them to Santa Cruz. Once the eggs had hatched and the young had grown took large for the rats to eat, the tortoises were taken back to Pinzon. So far, about 200 young have been reared and returned to the island.

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On Hood Island large herds of goats had destroyed much of the island’s vegetation on which the giant tortoises depend. Researchers found only 12 females and 2 males. No breeding had taken place for some time: the tortoises were so scattered that they simply could not find each other. The only solution was to take the tortoise back to the research station and establish a breeding colony. Around 130 youngsters have been produced, 80 of which have been returned to their home island.

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Goats were also a problem on Pinta Island. Three were introduced in the 1950’s; by the 1970’s they had multiplied to a staggering 50,000. During the 1960’s no tortoises were to be seen, and the Pinta Island tortoise was officially declared extinct. Then, in 1971, George appeared.

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George was moved to Santa Cruz In the hope that a mate might be found for hi. But the future appears bleak. Although the research station has offered a $10,000 reward for a female saddleback tortoise, a search of zoos throughout the world has failed: the reward is unclaimed.

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There is one faint ray of hope. In 1981 tortoise dropping were seen on Pinta. But unless the tortoise itself is found, and proves to be female, George seems doomed to remain lonesome.

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I know there are plenty of people who choose to believe the literal Biblical creation story – the story that God created Earth and put Adam on it, then created Eve from Adam’s rib and they went on to populate the entire Earth. For these folks the idea of evolution just runs contrary to their very fundamental system of belief.

But there are a lot of religious and spiritual folks who believe in the existence of a Higher Power – but don’t necessarily think the Bible should be interpreted so literally. For these people I propose the scenario that, assuming there is a God, the Higher Power created the Universe and everything in it, and had the foresight to install a mechanism that allows change to happen so that Life could adapt to changing conditions in the environment.

Image of Charles Darwin via Wikipedia

If you have faith in modern science, then you will understand that the Universe is supposed to be about 14 billion years old. Scientists have tried to figure out what the environment might have been like in the past. There are scenarios that show the Earth to be a firey, much hotter and wetter environment. Life was different back then. In fact, if you believe in evolution, warm-blooded mammals are one of the most recent evolutionary adaptations. Mammals can handle cold weather better than their cold-blooded counterparts.

To my mind it makes sense that am omnicient God would have the vision to establish a process for change. We can actually watch evolution happen on simpler organisms like viruses. The common cold and flu viruses evolve all the time – right in front of our eyes. I also think the idea of a changing environment and evolution is just a lot more interesting than the simplistic idea that God just created each individual creature in their current form and then put fossils in the ground to test our faith. That, to me, seems preposterous.

The Pacific Leatherback Turtle is one of the endangered species that needs your urgent attention, its numbers are declining at a phenomenal rate. In Costa Rica, female leatherbacks come to nest on Playa Grande in Las Baulas, the national park on the coastline which is their last bolt hole, in 2001 only 67 turtles came compared to 1367 in 1988 and 115,000 in 1980.

Turtle eggs are a delicacy and an aphrodisiac, the set nets and overfishing are causing major problems and the loss of habitat from the humans living on the coastal beaches and leaving them with no where to lay their eggs is creating havoc for this animal. Larry Crowder from the Duke University Marine Laboratory said, “I never thought this ancient creature would be vulnerable to extinction. Unless something changes, the (turtles) will be extinct within 10 to 30 years.” Jim Spotila of Drexel University who is all too aware of the problems protecting a migratory creature like this turtle says, “If we want to protect the leatherbacks, we need to know where they go and why they go there. The ocean changes all the time…so it’s very difficult to protect migratory species like leatherbacks because they change their routes. The data that turtles are sending us will let predict their journeys and help us to protect them.”

Raising funds to purchase satellite tags and transmitters is an ongoing battle but many organizations have stepped up to the plate to take this challenge on. This is possible when the turtles lay their eggs and are in a trance like state. Attaching a transmitter to the turtle will allow scientists to follow their movements across 1200 miles of ocean to the Galapagos Islands where they feed. They have made game of it and you can find much more information about this by following this link at greatturtlerace.com.