The last of his kind lived for decades as the world's most famous bachelor

Discovered in 1971, Lonesome George was the sole known survivor of the Pinta Island giant tortoise subspecies. Conservationists spent over 40 years trying to breed him with related tortoises, at one point offering a $10,000 reward for a suitable mate that was never claimed. When he died in 2012 at an estimated 100-plus years old, his subspecies went extinct with him.

— Henry Nicholls, Lonesome George: The Life and Loves of a Conservation Icon — Macmillan, 2006
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