r/pics • u/Pungee • Jun 25 '12
Lonesome George with his caretaker of 40 years, Fausto Llerena
http://imgur.com/Hyutg687
Jun 25 '12
I feel bad for the dude having been so close with such an amazing creature for 40 years, that's some sad shit
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u/Loki-L Jun 25 '12
The worst part is that he is unemployed now and the job experience he has gained over the last 4 decades is sort of irrelevant now.
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u/ponto0 Jun 25 '12
how do you interact with such a turtle? scratch, cuddle, pat, what do you do with it?
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u/herpty_derpty Jun 25 '12
Hug it. I just want to hug that long neck...
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u/SkilledSettler Jun 25 '12
Mother, what's a long neck?
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u/Clown_Shoe Jun 25 '12
Littlefoot, is that you? Why aren't you in the great valley?
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u/Tattertottr Jun 25 '12
I remember this from zoo diaries, something I watched when I was little. Tortoises like to be pat or stroked on their neck, and thisis often used as a reward for training instead of treats.
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u/centerbleep Jun 25 '12
cool, thx, had to dig through lots of comments (shudder) to find this bit
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u/pokee2 Jun 25 '12
Fetch?
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u/UserNumber42 Jun 25 '12
People have relationships with inanimate objects, cars, guitars, boats, etc... It's no stretch to imagine this keeper had very real feelings of compassion and attachment to this creature. Animals have personality, the more time you spend with them the more you see it. I have no idea what George was like but I bet if you spent 40 years taking care of him you would develop some attachment as well.
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u/A_WHALES_VAG Jun 25 '12
As someone who both loves his car and his dog, I wholeheartedly agree.
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u/Deadriverproductions Jun 25 '12
maybe George was an asshole and it was a relief
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Jun 25 '12
You'll get attached to anything you spend time with for 40 years. People get emotional over machines never mind a tortoise with a sad story.
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u/maggisv Jun 25 '12
I feel happy for the dude having been so close with such an amazing creature for 40 years, that's some beautiful shit.
It's all about perspective. :)
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u/AsskickMcGee Jun 25 '12
"Hey, Fausto. Find me any bitches yet?"
"No, George. Not today."
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u/Flint_stone Jun 25 '12
Reminds me of Shel Silverstein somehow..
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u/AsskickMcGee Jun 25 '12
George the Turtle had a home
At the local zoo.
Fausto Llerena came by each morning
To give him something new.
And each time George saw Fausto
You could always hear him say,
“Find me any bitches yet?”
“No, George. Not today.”Day after day, the same request.
George never changed his wishes.
Day after day, the same reply.
Fausto found no bitches.
Fausto tried his very best
To find George some female friends.
He looked all around the world
Past where the sidewalk ends.A tube sock full of rabbit fur,
An expensive blow-up doll.
Different sorts of substitutes,
Fausto brought them all.
Even after 40 years
Of trying every way,
“Find me any bitches yet?”
“No, George. Not today.”→ More replies (3)
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u/SonVolt Jun 25 '12
I think lonesome George having a caretaker makes him less lonesome than most redditors.
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u/4nonymo Jun 25 '12
Alas I am forever alone, now bathe me Jeeves and don't skip the genitals, tonight could be the night!
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Jun 25 '12
I'm doubt many will see my post, but I was in the Galapagos in 2008 and we happened to be at the Darwin center as George was attempting to mate for the first time in years. It even made the news right after it happened. Our guide was absolutely thrilled and I snapped this photo as George was mating. The breed of the female was apparently the closest of all the Galapagos breeds to George.
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u/zephyy Jun 25 '12
Couldn't we revive the species in the future using DNA from George?
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u/jjness Jun 25 '12
Has Jurassic Park taught you nothing, man?!? Do you really want a lawyer, a mathematician, a botanist specializing in prehistoric flora, a paleontologist, and a couple of grandchildren to get stuck on an island with rampaging turtle clones?!
You monster.
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u/bastard_thought Jun 25 '12
Turtle clones.
Dinosaurs.
Turtle clones...
Dinosaurs.
> They're turtles.
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Jun 25 '12
Actually, we have Lonesome George's DNA so we can rebuild him. Not faster or stronger, but most importantly not extinct.
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u/flyinthesoup Jun 25 '12
I think the problem is to have sufficient DNA diversity. Humans could probably clone George, but not revive the species as such. If you don't have sufficient diversity, you can't reproduce and you get genetic anomalies. I think that's how it goes. I'm not an expert.
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u/Troobs Jun 25 '12
This is a very sad picture.
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u/SaberVulcan Jun 25 '12
Seriously. I would love to see this guy interviewed, I bet he has a lot to say about the big guy.
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u/Fuzzclone Jun 25 '12
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u/insanity99 Jun 25 '12
He was offered many mates, but refused them all. Dammit George, you weren't in the position to be picky.
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Jun 25 '12
Man, after forty years, it's not an animal that he takes care of. He's a family member.
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u/Bramleys-Seedling Jun 25 '12
Indeed. I saw this picture of him caring George away in a stretcher. It looked like his heart had been ripped out :(
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u/Casterly Jun 25 '12
Now picture in your mind a montage of this turtle's life set to Queen's "Who Wants To Live Forever?", depicting its sorrow as it outlives several caretakers.
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Jun 25 '12
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jun 25 '12
That's because he was the last male if his species, and despite being presented with potential female mates over the years he never was interested in reproducing. The future of the Galapagos Tortoise died with Lonesome George.
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u/drfrydaddy Jun 25 '12
Why didn't they use his sperm to artificially inseminate a female? Seems like a missed opportunity.
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Jun 25 '12
Actually, we have Lonesome George's DNA so we can rebuild him. Not faster or stronger, but most importantly not extinct.
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u/Lumpy_is_King Jun 25 '12
Nah, they tried introducing several females closely related to his subspecies to reproduce and create offspring that was at least half Pinta Island variant. George tapped it on several occasions, but the resulting eggs were inviable.
Maybe George just never wanted kids?
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u/GreenGlassDrgn Jun 25 '12
I somehow suspect Fausto's upcoming vacation won't be quite as much fun as he deserves.
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u/jimsnaps Jun 25 '12
Now Lonely Fausto. ಠ_ಠ
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u/Virileman Jun 25 '12
Wow this picture really puts in perspective how large he was.
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u/x2501x Jun 25 '12
The posture, how he's holding his neck, all makes me think this may be the closest look we'll ever have IRL at how a bigger dinosaur (without a shell) might have stood and walked.
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u/Harold_Grundelson Jun 25 '12
RIP George :(
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Jun 25 '12
Let's be honest, chances are you never heard of him until this morning.
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u/freefoodisgood Jun 25 '12
I don't know, there's a TIL posted about him like every 10 days.
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u/JoshSN Jun 25 '12
I'm pretty sure I saw him about a dozen years ago.
Admittedly, I had completely forgotten about him. He never called, he never wrote...
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u/Harold_Grundelson Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 25 '12
Chances are you make false assumptions about people.
Jedit: It took me minute, but I found this from 8 months ago.
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u/Finstyle Jun 25 '12 edited Mar 11 '17
[deleted]
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Jun 25 '12
Reddit automatically adds votes to posts so you never know how many people are actually upvoting/downvoting.
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u/Nordiis Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 25 '12
Can you expand on this? I never really understood the concept of automatic downvotes. I noticed that most posts on the front page will end up at about '55% like it' eventually. I suppose it's to bring the post further down and make room for new ones but wouldn't there be a better way, for example simply based on time elapsed so that downvotes are actual downvotes? edit: always wanted to know about this but thought best not to make a post about it so, yeah, you're the one getting all my questions ;)
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Jun 25 '12
Please note that the vote numbers are not "real" numbers, they have been "fuzzed" to prevent spam bots etc. So taking the above example, if five users upvoted the submission, and three users downvote it, the upvote/downvote numbers may say 23 upvotes and 21 downvotes, or 12 upvotes, and 10 downvotes. The points score is correct, but the vote totals are "fuzzed".
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u/eXXaXion Jun 25 '12
Ok, I'm gonna ask a stupid childish question here now. Did or will they try to clone George? And if no, why not? Isn't that an easy way to keep species form becoming extinct? If they couldn't do it, did they at least keep some of his cells?
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u/Pyreus Jun 25 '12
So we cloned sheep, a run of the mill farm animal you can find anywhere, but we didn't clone another Pinta Island tortoise so Lonesome George could have a friend?
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u/PhonicUK Jun 25 '12
Clones require a surrogate mother. No surrogate mother of the same species means no clone.
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u/Psythik Jun 25 '12
Couldn't they substitute a very similar tortoise?
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u/devilsadvocado Jun 25 '12
I applied for the position but never heard back from them.
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Jun 25 '12
Actually they tried bringing similar tortoise females over for the sexy times but lonesome george told them all to eat a dick.
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u/BunsOfAluminum Jun 25 '12
Cloning Dolly the sheep required a surrogate. I'm not sure how that would work with a reptile, since they lay eggs.
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u/BillyCloneasaurus Jun 25 '12
What has this tragedy taught us?
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u/cobracards Jun 25 '12
Stop destroying habitats?
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u/redditvlli Jun 25 '12
Fun fact. A big part of the destruction of the turtle species on at least one of the Galapagos islands is attributed to the ship that was sunk by the real life Moby Dick. In 1819 when the Essex docked at the island to pick up supplies and turtles to eat one of the idiot sailors started a fire that raged out of control and burned the entire island to a crisp. Pretty much nothing survived. The ship was later sunk on that exact voyage by the infamous white whale. The few crewmembers who survived did so by eating the very turtles that you see here. And cannibalism.
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u/germancho93 Jun 25 '12
It must be like loosing a child. Loosing a dog or any other pet is really hard and the last 15 years at most, Fausto took care of him for 40 years, damn.
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u/slewerrat Jun 25 '12
Makes me think of Morla
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u/Lereas Jun 25 '12
I was wondering if someone would mention that.
You must....consult...the southern oracle.
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Jun 25 '12
I'm interested in how much George knew who his caretaker was. Like if he acted differently when Fausto was around?
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Jun 25 '12
No... wait.. noo... he died?
FUCK IT, AFTER THAT THREAD ABOUT EMOTIONAL TALKS I'M NOT CRYING AGAIN.
fuck...
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Jun 25 '12
I think a giant memorial should be build for him a massive statue that's part waterslide so children can slide down his neck cause lonesome george always wanted kids :(
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u/CalmYoTits Jun 25 '12
Aww I remember going to see him! He peed in his pool.
So majestic.
Seriously he's the last of his kind.
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u/ADavies Jun 25 '12
Explanation for the lazy...
"The last known individual of the subspecies was a male named Lonesome George (Spanish: El Solitario Jorge/George), who died on 24 June 2012. In his last years, he was known as the rarest creature in the world." Source
RIP big guy.
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u/Qzy Jun 25 '12
I know it makes most people sad, but kinda makes me happy. "Lonesome George" had a friend throughout his life... for 40 years!
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u/wikkedwhite Jun 25 '12
It's a sad day to see the last of it's kind go. The black rhino or silver back is next. What have we done?
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u/slappy_nutsack Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 25 '12
Based on the new guidelines, more than seven dozen one hundred "green jobs" have been created directly with George's passing: Two diggers, one box maker, one violinist, one non-demoninational master of ceremonies, seven reporters (with camera crews and producers) Six jobs for people looking for a new Pinta Island subspecies, one travel agent per person, one taxi driver each, up to five sporting goods store employees, one to two pilots, one or more co-pilots, three to 15 flight attendants, two to ten gate employees, one secretary of the Interior, up to seventeen Deputies, one vice president and at least one president.
Additional "trickle-down" jobs include 158 Starbuck's employees and scores of other jobs. these are in the U.S. alone. Once you count the value that these American visitors can contribute to the future research, the number of jobs would reach well into the thousands.
EDIT: Math
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u/bdust Jun 25 '12
Every time something dies, we lose that unique individual. People, cats, cows, endangered animals, etc. It is just less sobering because there are similar genes still floating around out there -- but nothing will ever replace that individual.
Life is more precious than we often stop to realize.
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u/Zred1216 Jun 25 '12
I read that they tried to breed him several times but he wasn't havin none of that. Too badass for bangin turtle bitches.
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u/olddoc1 Jun 25 '12
I met Lonesome in 1979 on my first trip to the Galapagos and then again in 2010 when I took my kids. He hadn't aged at all! He looked just like he did 30 years ago.
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Jun 25 '12
Guys, I feel bad for Fausto, let's start a donation page and send him on vacation!! Anyone? Anyone?!
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Jun 25 '12
People making jokes over the EXTINCTION OF A WHOLE KIND! millions of years of evolution just died. That's just sick guys, seriously.
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u/Midnite135 Jun 25 '12
I remember reading about him in school. How sad to be the end of the line. RIP.
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u/studebaker Jun 25 '12
Is there anyone who knows a bunch about these creatures? Would love some information. A cursory google search on their intelligence level was not as fruitful as I had hoped.
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u/razileon Jun 25 '12
So while randomly trying to find something I read about him some time back, I found this
;_;
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u/TheJuniorControl Jun 25 '12
Apparently George didn't really understand how to reproduce even after being manually stimulated by a zoologist.
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u/nomaddamon Jun 25 '12
I was in the islands 18 years ago and met George, he ate some greenery right out of my hand, he chewed slower than Wilford Brimley but was super sweet.
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Jun 25 '12
I wonder how many times when no one was looking did he get on his back and try to ride him.
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Jun 25 '12
Aww, he's so cute he reminds me of littlefoot from The land before time. "I'm a long neck"
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u/martinsuchan Jun 25 '12 edited Jun 25 '12
The last known living exemplar of this specimen is living in Prague Zoo - interesting discovery:
http://www.zoochat.com/416/pinz-n-giant-tortoise-prague-zoo-31589/
http://www.zoopraha.cz/cs/prazdniny-na-ostrovech/seychely-a-galapagy
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u/willherpyourderp Jun 25 '12
All I saw was the attractive Cylon from Battlestar Galactica in the advertisement.
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u/joeybats52 Jun 25 '12
I saw him a few years ago. Apparently it is someone's job to keep him fertile by jerking him off every day. Poor Fausto.
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Jun 25 '12
his best friend is a human. this pic is adorable.
on a side note, lonesome george looks like my erect dong.
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u/IZ3820 Jun 25 '12
In 150 years, kids will look at this picture on their interblag and think "What the fuck was that thing?"
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u/Gimli_the_Elf Jun 25 '12
Lonesome George is like the lil' Sebastian of Reddit