Friday, November 9, 2007

What I learned today, part II : You too can fondle tortoises!

The other tidbit of information I found was an article about the recovery of Galapagos tortoises. Many of the species almost went extinct because sailors were eating them (Ron says "they weren't doin' it enough; he's an expert in the field"...) and then people introduced goats that ate all their food, and rats that ate their babies. Anyway, most of them are doing a lot better now.


The Pinta island species only has one known survivor named Lonesome George (although they think they may have found some hybrids), who they have apparently been trying to breed with similar tortoises, but he doesn't want to hump anything... The highlight (if that's the right term) of the article is this:


In 1994, Cayot learned a sperm-retrieval technique from a German zoo veterinarian and taught a Swiss volunteer how to fondle a rather ticklish George. "She could get the other tortoises to ejaculate in 15 minutes," Cayot recalls. "We worked with George for months and got nothing." http://sciencenews.org/articles/20071110/bob9.asp


And you thought your job was bad...
Isn't he cute?

3 comments:

defmoose said...

Turtle Ejaculator.... it rolls right off the tongue... ewww.

Lorigga said...

So are they insinuating that George likes Swiss chicks?

Cyrusse said...

I think they're insinuating that he doesn't even want to do Swiss chicks. Maybe Swiss tortoises. They should try that.