Can Extinct Giant Tortoises Be Brought Back to Life?
Scientists scrambled across lava-covered slopes on the Galápagos Islands to try to resurrect Lonesome George and another extinct species. Here's how they're planning to bring the giant tortoises back.
WOLF VOLCANO, Galápagos An 80-foot cable dangled beneath a helicopter as it emerged from the mists and flew to an anchored ship, where it gently deposited its living cargo. A century-old giant tortoise lumbered out of a tangle of green netting and stretched its mustard-yellow neck from its shell.
Plucked from lava-strewn slopes, this male tortoise holds the hope for reviving a species that’s been extinct since the 1850s. Known as H-2, he’s a hybrid bearing the strong genetic stamp of tortoises once native to the Galápagos’ Floreana Island.
Weighing in at 380 pounds, H-2 is one of 32 giant tortoises retrieved last month during a $500,000 expedition that could be key to resurrecting two extinct species, the Floreana and the Pinta. The
