Lonesome George likely to remain so

In the new series of Doctor Who, the Doctor is continually harping on about being the last of the Time Lords. But what about the last of a real species?

The Pinta Island tortoises have nearly gone extinct, what with human invasion of the Galapagos Islands with the subsequent changes in environment and, well, eating of tortoises. This has left just one remaining example of the species, known as Lonesome George.

In order for more of them to be around, not only does a female have to be found (no luck so far), but also George has to not act so Lonesome. "George has not been interested in reproducing in the past and may not know how, former keepers and others who have worked with him said."

And if that wasn't the best news, imagine reading about this in your job description: "[Sveva] Grigioni, now back in Switzerland, said she could normally get tortoises to ejaculate within minutes, but spent months manually stimulating George and never extracted semen from him."

The Galapagos have meant a lot to human history (they did provide the data Charles Darwin needed to form his ideas on evolution, but not immeditately, unlike certain Big Finish Audio would have you believe). And this is likely to be the last example of this particular variation evolution produces...

(Go on, buy a plush Lonesome George today! [Although, if you can get them to accept an NZ address, you're doing better than me!])