I'd like to add about how he was getting somewhere until the lady that was helping him ran out of time..lol..this part of an article is interesting
The tragedy of loveless George the tortoise | the Daily Mail
But in the main, George's health is mostly tip-top. For a tortoise in his hundreds, he should be in his sexual prime. Yet George has steadfastly refused to mate. This has not been for the want of trying.
First, females from a different giant tortoise species were put into his enclosure.
He showed no interest, even when the number of females were increased to orgiastic proportions.
The lack of activity in his corral led to all sorts of speculation.
"Visit Lonesome George, the world's oldest gay living turtle", touted one American travel agent.
Then, for four months in 1994, Swiss zoology graduate Sveva Grigioni made it her task to encourage his libido.
She spent days with him in the enclosure, trying to gain his trust.
"He was very shy at the beginning," she explains.
"He is such a big animal and he was so afraid."
To encourage him to loosen up, she smeared herself with female tortoise hormones, or pheromones, a sort of "come-and-get-me" signal.
And she succeeded where nobody has before or since. First she confirmed his sexual anatomy was normal.
Then she got him to show signs of sexual activity.
"Day by day, he became more interested in the females," she wrote. "He started to try copulation but it was like he didn't really know how."
Just as Grigioni and George were getting somewhere, her time at the research centre came to an end.
And George returned to sexual torpor, the state he remains in today as the biggest tourist attraction of the Galapagos.
It would, of course, be wrong if George was simply being used as a commercial ploy to get more funding for the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galapagos or as a mere bait to attract more visitors who did not fully comprehend his uniqueness and rarity.
But Dr Nicholls believes the research centre is the only chance for George to perpetuate his species.
"Getting George to reproduce is, frankly, a long shot," he admits. "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try."
"One day, George will give up the tortoise ghost.
"His remains must stay at the research station. Even in death it is here that he will have his greatest audience."
I feel the same about Timothy, and still visit his grave under the purple wisteria at Powderham Castle.
Curiously, like George, he did not mate - unless you accept his attempts to mount the late Lord Devon's wartime helmet.
Lonesome George: The Life And Loves Of The World's Most Famous Tortoise by Henry Nicholls is published by Pan Paperback at £7.99.
Linear Mode
