A part of me will always wonder what role humans played in his demise. 100+ may sound really old, but for that species, it wasn't.

Time Magazine's Newsfeed post on George highlighted that he wasn't the only species in danger of disappearing:

Despite his nickname, George, in some ways, was far from lonesome: He is part of a global family of animals who are among the last remaining representatives of their kind. Here are some of George’s most endangered relatives, as reported by National Geographic:

- Vaquita: A tiny dolphin that lives in the Gulf of Mexico and often drowns in fishing nets. 150 left
- Hirola: An antelope with lovely swirled horns that lives near the Kenya-Somalia border and is threatened by cattle farming and drought. 600 left
- Bonneted Bat: Florida’s largest bat was thought to be extinct until a small colony was found near Fort Myers in 2002. The 21-inch creature has lost most of the cliff crevices and tree cavities in which it lives. 100 left
- Grenada Dove: The pink-breasted Caribbean bird has been hunted to the brink of extinction by mongooses, cats and rats. 150 left
- White-headed Langur: These monkeys on Vietnam’s Cat Ba Island are used in traditional Chinese medicine and have now been fractured into a few small groups. 59 left less

To all you nature-lovers among the Eden community, I decided to share a bit of sad news. Lonesome George, the last known member of a subspecies of Galapagos tortoise, died two days ago. He was thought to be over 100 years old. Though it's possible that there may be others of the same species still alive, at the moment the Pinta Island tortoise is considered to be extinct.

Probably counts as small news in the grand scheme of things, but I always kind of liked Lonesome George, even though I've only seen him in pictures and documentaries. I was sad to hear that he's gone, and it feels a little surreal to have an animal go extinct in my lifetime. less