“Diego,” a species of the Española island giant tortoise species, is pictured in a breeding center at the Galapagos National Park in Santa Cruz Island located some 1,000 kilometer (off Ecuador’s coast. Experts will try to bring back in 2014 two species of the giant tortoise believed to be extinct, the Chelonoidis abingdonii species of the Pinta island (that of Lonesome George—the last Pinta Island giant tortoise which died in June 2012) and the Chelonoidis elephantopus presumed extinct shortly after Charles Darwin’s historic voyage there in 1835, as part of a captive breeding program directed towards resurrecting the species. Genes from recently extinct species can live on in mixed ancestry creatures. AFP PHOTO
PUERTO AYORA, Ecuador: Scientists will try to revive two species of giant Galapagos tortoises thought to have been extinct by breeding genetic relatives in captivity, experts leading the effort said.