Article Summary:

Galapagos and environmental icon, Pinta giant tortoise Lonesome George has died, the BBC reports. He was a symbol of the Galapagos Islands and was believed to be the last of the subspecies Chelonoidis nigra abingdoni which is hence now considered extinct. Unsuccessful attempts had been made to get him to mate with other tortoises for several decades and he was believed to have been around 100 years old at the time of his death.