![]() Now researchers have captured and airlifted 32 of the tortoises with the most distinctive saddlebacks and taken them to the breeding center on Santa Cruz Island, in the hope that they will harbor the largest proportion of the thought-to-be-extinct subspecies' DNA. Some have such a high percentage of DNA from these extinct subspecies that the scientists suggest their parents could have been purebred animals. The saddlebacked varieties actually turned out to be hybrids, between the original Wolf volcano subspecies and those from Pinta and Floreana. But after taking blood samples from over 1,600 members of this population, researchers found something surprising. On another of the Galapagos Islands, this time Isabela Island, one of the subspecies living on the side of Wolf volcano was thought to occur in both saddlebacked and domed forms. The True Size Of World's Deepest Freshwater Cave Is Still A Mystery This led to the tortoise population crashing from an estimated 250,000 in the 16th century to just 3,000 by the 1970s. ![]() Unfortunately for the tortoises, they were easy prey to catch and survived for up to a year upside down in the holds of whaling and pirate ships, providing the sailors with fresh meat for their long voyages. In addition to the subspecies from Pinta, those from the island of Floreana are thought to have become extinct in the mid-1800s. ![]() The tortoises, originally found living on seven of the Galapagos Islands, are divided into 15 subspecies, of which only 11 survive to this day. Now, Yale researchers think that his DNA might live on (or at least that of his relatives), diluted in hybrid tortoises found on another island descended from tortoises thrown overboard 150 years ago. Despite a global search to find him a mate, it proved fruitless over the 80 years of his life. Discovered roaming the rocky island in the Galapagos archipelago on his own in 1972, it was believed that he was the last of his subspecies. When Lonesome George died in 2012, it was thought that so did the last Pinta Island giant tortoise.
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