Lonesome George Research Paper

The American Museum of Natural History has many animals. It has big tigers. It has tiny horses too. Now the museum has a new animal. His name is Lonesome George.

Lonesome George is a tortoise. A tortoise looks like a very big turtle. Lonesome George is not alive. He died two years ago.

The museum is in New York. It tells visitors about animals that have died off, or become extinct. When an animal goes extinct, there are none of them left.

The Last One

Visitors at the museum can see statues of extinct animals. George is now a statue.

George lived in the Galápagos Islands. The Galápagos are in South America. The islands are famous. They have many types of animals and plants.

For a long time, George's family of giant tortoises were hunted.

Hunters wanted their meat and oil. Nearly all of the tortoises died. George was the only one left.

George died without any family. He was 100 years old.

In The Museum

George is now a statue at the museum. The statue was made by experts. The experts stuffed George's body with other materials, like sand. This makes the statue look very real.

At the museum, statues of other extinct animals sit next to George. He looks a little less lonely. But George is different from the other animals. They died because the Earth changed. George and his family are gone forever because humans hunted them.