25 Jun 2012

Death of giant tortoise

12:00 pm on 25 June 2012

Lonesome George, the last remaining giant tortoise of his kind, has died.

He was thought to be about 100 years old and the last member of a subspecies of giant tortoise from La Pinta, one of the smallest islands in the Galapagos.

Lonesome George was found in 1972.

The giant tortoise, thought to be about 100 years old, was found in 1972 and became a symbol of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands.

The giant Galapagos tortoises, which can live up to 200 years old, were among the species that helped Charles Darwin formulate his theory of evolution in the 19th Century.

About 20,000 giant tortoises still live in the Galapagos Islands.