Imagine being an eligible bachelor with a $10,000 reward to whoever can find you the perfect mate. Well, if you were Lonesome George, the last living member of the Pinta Island giant tortoise species, then it would be just another day to you.

The saga of Lonely George began on Pinta Island of the Galápagos Islands, a remote, uninhabited island where George and his tortoise friends roamed for years. The extinction of this species was a result of human actions. People introduced goats onto the island, which threw off the ecosystem causing thousands of tortoises to die. Pigs and dogs ate the tortoise eggs and humans took the tortoises aboard ships to use for food. Eventually they were eradicated — all except one.

In 1971 a student on a mission trip to clear the goats off the island was the first to spot George. They scoured the island looking for more of his kind but only found skeletons. George was moved to Charles Darwin Research Station on the island of Santa Cruz where he is housed in captivity, standing as a beacon of hope for the Pinta Island Tortoise population. Scientists brought female tortoises of similar subspecies in to live with him in hopes that they would mate. Although eggs were produced, none of them hatched. George has been fairly disinterested in mating, but scientists have continued to try by putting different species of females in with him.

The century-old tortoise is a symbol of animal conservation not only in the Galápagos but internationally as well.

George is the last of his kind and considered the “rarest living creature” by the Guinness book of World Records. But is it possible that he may not be as lonely as we thought?

Scientists have taken DNA from another Galápagos tortoise subspecies and found that it is a hybrid of the presumably extinct Chelonoidis elephantopus tortoise. This means that the tortoise’s parent must have been the subspecies that has been presumed to be extinct for more than 150 years. Although scientists have not seen this species roaming around, the DNA proves it may still exist. Scientists assume that there are likely very few purebred species left.

On the neighboring Isabela Island,  recent discoveries have revealed a species of tortoise that is a mixed race of Pinta ancestry. This suggests that there could be at least one Pinta tortoise left near Wolf Volcano on Isabela Island that has passed down its genes to its offspring.

George may have a fighting chance to finally find love again.