متى توفيت سلحفاة الغالاباغوس ؟
On June 24, 2012, at 8:00 am local time, Galápagos National Park director Edwin Naula announced that Lonesome George had been found dead by Fausto Llerana, who looked after him for 40 years. Naula suspected that the cause of death was cardiac arrest. A necropsy confirmed that George died from natural causes. The body of Lonesome George was frozen and shipped to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to be preserved by taxidermists. The preservation work was carried out by the museum's taxidermist George Dante, with input from scientists.
After a short display at the museum, it was expected that Lonesome George would be returned to the Galápagos and displayed at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island for future generations to see. However, a dispute broke out between an Ecuadorean ministry and the Galápagos Islands over where the preserved body of a Galapagos giant tortoise should be housed. The Ecuadorean government wanted him to be shown in the capital, Quito, but the Galápagos local mayor said Lonesome George was a symbol of the islands and should return home.
cardiac arrest